Photo: @ByeonChansoo via Twitter | Edited
During Investor Day, Tesla announced a new gigafactory in Mexico to produce an affordable high-volume electric model. In a conversation with Nuevo Leon's governor Samuel Garcia, Tesla's second-in-command Tom Zhu said he wants to shatter Giga Shanghai's previous record of nine months from the start of construction to the first deliveries.
It's official: Tesla will break ground in Monterrey to build its next-generation gigafactory, which will assemble next-generation EVs. The location in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon offers important advantages to Tesla, being close to Giga Texas and Tesla's new Lithium refinery in Corpus Christi, TX. Still, according to the latest information, Tesla doesn't intend to make Giga Mexico a "support factory" for Giga Texas.
Instead, the Mexican gigafactory is set to become Tesla's biggest car factory in the world, where the most cutting-edge technologies are implemented. Based on the current production capacity of Giga Shanghai, Giga Mexico should go beyond 1 million vehicles per year in production capacity. With traditional manufacturing, this means a bigger assembly plant, so legacy carmakers rarely go above 400,000 units per year at any of their plants.
However, Tesla is not a traditional carmaker, and its gigafactories have a different production line layout. That's why Tesla considered the 1 million-per-year production the sweet spot. Until now, that is. During Investor Day, Tesla offered a glimpse into the future with the "Unboxed Vehicle" manufacturing process. This allows more people to work simultaneously on different car sections and shortens the time needed to advance from stamping/casting to the finished vehicle.
Tesla will also eliminate many posts from the gigafactory layout by streamlining the production process and using megacastings. This should make the car advance faster on the production line and need less production space. That's why Giga Mexico will not be larger than Giga Shanghai, and it will still be able to have higher production.
According to Tom Zhu, who oversees Tesla factories and sales operations in North America and Europe, Tesla will try to break Giga Shanghai's speed record when building the factory. Giga Shanghai took just nine months from breaking ground to the first deliveries. Tom Zhu is qualified to make such promises as the man who pulled it through with construction and production ramp-up in China. If he succeeds again, we'll see Tesla's next-generation EV rolling off the production line in Monterrey as soon as next year.
In the meantime, Tesla fans have already pinpointed the precise Giga Mexico location based on the slide shown at Investor Day. The site is next to two important highways, benefiting from high-power electrical lines and an electrical substation nearby. Also, Nuevo Leon governor, Samuel Garcia, has dismissed concerns about the scarce water reserves in the area. According to Garcia, there is a water plant nearby where the water is underutilized because there aren't many businesses in the area.
Instead, the Mexican gigafactory is set to become Tesla's biggest car factory in the world, where the most cutting-edge technologies are implemented. Based on the current production capacity of Giga Shanghai, Giga Mexico should go beyond 1 million vehicles per year in production capacity. With traditional manufacturing, this means a bigger assembly plant, so legacy carmakers rarely go above 400,000 units per year at any of their plants.
However, Tesla is not a traditional carmaker, and its gigafactories have a different production line layout. That's why Tesla considered the 1 million-per-year production the sweet spot. Until now, that is. During Investor Day, Tesla offered a glimpse into the future with the "Unboxed Vehicle" manufacturing process. This allows more people to work simultaneously on different car sections and shortens the time needed to advance from stamping/casting to the finished vehicle.
Tesla will also eliminate many posts from the gigafactory layout by streamlining the production process and using megacastings. This should make the car advance faster on the production line and need less production space. That's why Giga Mexico will not be larger than Giga Shanghai, and it will still be able to have higher production.
According to Tom Zhu, who oversees Tesla factories and sales operations in North America and Europe, Tesla will try to break Giga Shanghai's speed record when building the factory. Giga Shanghai took just nine months from breaking ground to the first deliveries. Tom Zhu is qualified to make such promises as the man who pulled it through with construction and production ramp-up in China. If he succeeds again, we'll see Tesla's next-generation EV rolling off the production line in Monterrey as soon as next year.
In the meantime, Tesla fans have already pinpointed the precise Giga Mexico location based on the slide shown at Investor Day. The site is next to two important highways, benefiting from high-power electrical lines and an electrical substation nearby. Also, Nuevo Leon governor, Samuel Garcia, has dismissed concerns about the scarce water reserves in the area. According to Garcia, there is a water plant nearby where the water is underutilized because there aren't many businesses in the area.
Also he mentions that the president of mexico was concerned about amount of treated water that will be used by giga mexico to what the governor responded that that there is a water plant really close to the site where giga mexico will be built that most of that treated water is… https://t.co/2d2Tm6uXIc
— Hery.codes (@Totao) March 3, 2023
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