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$50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- close04 7y agoI'm being greeted by an Access Denied You don't have permission to access "[URL]" on this server. Edit. Maybe a GDPR type issue.
- jimbob45 7y agoWorked fine for me at the following: https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/inside-tesla-a-look-at-the-many-crates-of-equipment-delivered-to-the-south-buffalo-factory/71-341f2220-f2a6-4832-85a4-7c7a79171d89 https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/inside-tesla-a-look-... Edit: I now realize that the parent poster may have posted a malicious link. I feel like a fool.
- retSava 7y agoFor me, neither the OP link nor the one you gave works.
- jlv2 7y agohttp://archive.is/ny5TX http://archive.is/ny5TX
- kuu 7y agoSame here
- supermatt 7y agoSeems that way - I just tried a few connections via VPN, and EU countries blocked, non-EU countries not blocked.
- searine 7y agoThis seems like kind of a 'gotcha' article. "One out of every $6 spent on machinery for the Tesla factory is now unused." I'd imagine most healthy large companies operate this way. Utilizing the majority of their equipment and having some reserve capacity in parts and equipment stored.
- lobotryas 7y agoAbsolutely is a hot piece. Look how they went out of their way to mention that Musk is a billionaire (is that even true?). Hating on billionaires - so hot right now.
- briandear 7y agoHating on billionaires is hot among a certain constituency. They are the 21st century boogeymen.
- danans 7y ago> Hating on billionaires - so hot right now People don't hate the billionaires, they disapprove of a system structured to allow some people to acquire vast wealth on the order of billions while large numbers struggle with the basics like healthcare, childcare, education, and housing, while that system pays lip service to their struggles while doing little to change it. Western European countries, Japan, South Korea, for example, have billionaires, and many 100-millionaires, but do a much better job providing universal benefits.
- Nasrudith 7y agoRational people may do that. There is a sadly sizable contingent which absolutely does hate on billionaires though and let it become a distraction from /actually doing something about the system/. Hell often they violently oppose change to the same system which actually helps because of their own spite and selfishness. And it shows up in so many different ways and contexts. From the racists on food stamps and welfare who want it cut and then are /shocked/ when they lose it after their canidates are elected. Everyone with a rent controlled apartment who opposes building more housing while blaming billionares simutaniously for gentrification jobs and lack of jobs causing the area to go to hell. Those complaints about traffic while opposing public transit expansion, or the sorry state of roads while angrily rejecting gas taxes to fund it. Blaming billionares or any other helps them deny that the source of all of their life problems can be found in the mirror.
- jlv2 7y agoArchived link: http://archive.is/ny5TX http://archive.is/ny5TX
- ErikAugust 7y agoWait until they hear about the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of all sorts of stuff sitting idle that has been purchased by the DoD and USG paid for by tax money.
- JoeAltmaier 7y agoYeah my Son the Sgt told stories of complex equipment never used. Battery lifetime issues, complex controls, limited opportunity for training.
- bluedino 7y agoWe've bought "surplus" Dell and HP servers from different government entities that were two generations old, basically brand new in the box. I wonder what % of purchases go unused for whatever reasons.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago"I wonder what % of purchases go unused for whatever reasons." the same happens in big companies. W have budget cycles so we buy test equipment when the money is in the budget even at the risk of it never being used. Otherwise you can't buy stuff when you actually need it because at that time the budget isn't there. Same with hiring people. We are letting good interns go because there is a hiring freeze. 8 weeks later we scramble to find new hires because now we have headcount. Not sure how to do better but it just shows that planned economies tend to produce waste, be it in a corporation or in a communist state.
- Nasrudith 7y agoWhy not just give them a savings "buffer account" for the budget? Let them build up the remnants so that the available funds can build up some. Obviously you need to watch it still and be sure "underbudgets okay with surplus" don't deplete it entirely or too much builds up (as in multiples of the budget).
- bochoh 7y agoVia auction site?
- 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y ago> State government documents put the final price tag at $958,600,000 for the property, building construction and equipment. The cost for the equipment alone is close to $300 million. What a staggering number. How does our government get away with wasting so much money without any accountability?
- pjc50 7y agoAccountability is boring. Voters want entertainment. So they listen to the far more interesting stories on talk radio and elect celebrities.
- beamatronic 7y agoSomebody got rich, so it wasn’t really “wasted” /s
- skrtskrt 7y agoThey count on a few things: * you don't hear about all the millions of times this happens * You will still hear about thousands of times that it happens, and it happens so often you feel that can't possibly fight it all * you don't have alternative options to vote for * any alternative option is crushed with voter suppression and/or the massive campaign chests of the incumbents
- briandear 7y ago> any alternative option is crushed with voter suppression With early voting, free or very cheap ID for poor people, mail in ballots, and literally a year or more to confirm one’s voter registration, voter suppression is a ridiculous excuse. If people cared about voting, they would do it. I honestly don’t want people voting that can’t be bothered to take the responsibility seriously enough that they allow themselves to be “suppressed.” More voters isn’t the answer: more voters that care about fiscal responsibility is the answer. Many voters don’t care one bit about waste because those voters aren’t paying very much in the taxes that are getting wasted. They want “someone else” to pay. Many voters vote for the “stuff” they can get for themselves.
- mft_ 7y agoI'm slightly confused; is the story that the state of New York bought equipment for Tesla worth $300 million dollars, and a sixth of it is currently unused (meaning five sixths of it is being used currently)?
- new_realist 7y agoConsidering that Tesla will longer make solar cells in that factory (Panasonic is ending the relationship and withdrawing by September) I’d guess that it will all be unused shortly; this is just what has obviously been relocated so far.
- atonse 7y agoWhat am I missing here? Is there any reason why another company can't just take over, seeing as they could probably get the equipment at a great discount?
- tfolbrecht 7y agoIf Panasonic’s leaving I’m assuming it wasn’t that sweet of a deal. Even if someone else comes in will the state off the same terms? Can this hypothetical company fulfill their side? Is there somewhere greener?
- stefan_ 7y agoYou are missing that it makes absolutely zero sense to make solar cells in NY. Never has. The fact that SolarCity is such a failure just accelerated this deal blowing up.
- natch 7y ago> Considering that Tesla will longer make solar cells in that factory Solar cells? Panasonic was making battery cells for Tesla. Are you mixing up different uses of the word “cell”?
- CrazyStat 7y ago
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- deckar01 7y agoHere is a recent article about the project with a little more detail about the deal that was made between NY and Tesla. https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/tesla-gigafactory-2-new-york-write-down-value/ https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/tesla-gigafactory-2-new-y...
- JackFr 7y agoGood job chasing Amazon out of NYC though!
- pbreit 7y agoAs usual, Tesla's involvement in the original deal is reported incorrectly. Tesla had no involvement in the original deal. Nor did Solar City. In fact, Silevo did the deal, was then acquired by Solar City which was then acquired by Tesla.
- walrus01 7y agoIf you follow the PV panel manufacturing industry this is actually not super uncommon, there's a number of companies that have gone belly up in the past ten years. In some cases due to business models that relied on weird economic incentives for the panel manufacturing location, where 156mm cells purchased on the commodity market from a third party would be encapsulated and built up into 60 or 72-cell panels. Google "solar panel manufacturer bankrupt" for some noteworthy examples. Margins on PV panel manufacturing are REALLY thin.
- hef19898 7y agoIndeed they are. And manufacturer plants are expensive, so competition is kind of cut-throat to get high volume orders. Also capacities used to be largely under utilized in the last years. This forced prices further down, eroding more margin. No wonder all big manufacturers, with the exception thin film, are in China where it is easy for them to get financing.
- fujgygvlj 7y agoI think most businesses could crush their competitors if one of the worlds largest economies decided to be their bottomless patron. Framing it as "getting financing" makes it sound like some kind of venture capitalist affair when the reality is that China decided to kill foreign competitors with heavy state subsidies and all the California hippies cheered for it because they cheer for anything with the word solar attached.
- hef19898 7y agoYeah, that's true. But the China is communicating this fact in their five year plans. So the competition can hardly be surprised. IMHO, it is still close to the VC model. Just in a very strategic and state backed way. e.g. Yingli Solar was for a very long period the biggest manufacturer of solar modules worldwide. Until they screwed up financially, now they aren't top ten anymore.
- GiorgioG 7y agoMore incentive money pissed away. Your hard earned tax dollars at work. There's a lot of things I miss about Buffalo since moving south, but this isn't one of them.
- ricardobeat 7y agoThis website responds with a plain 403 'Access Denied' for european users.
- anonsivalley652 7y agoI guess it's American-made propaganda with export controls because it's considered "munitions." Try this instead: https://outline.com/BdaeZq https://outline.com/BdaeZq
- anonsivalley652 7y agoI don't particularly care about what Tesla, SolarCity or Silevo does or doesn't do. What is concerning is handing over hundreds of millions in socialist corporate welfare that goes to waste, when that money could've helped the homeless and desperately poor who get austerity instead.