Elon Musk has flown in robots and equipment in six planeloads from Germany to the Tesla Inc in California, to power up Model 3’s battery production.
Tesla was in news recently for its plans to set up, near Berlin, a battery factory. It has also announced its plans to build a European Car. Up until now, Musk has not been successful in creating a factory so hi-tech and advanced in automation that it allows Tesla to produce cars more efficiently than its contemporaries.
Subsequently, Tesla has been struggling to meet production goals and has lost its key staff to other firms rivaling Tesla. With the new German Factory, they could just change that.
According to Musk, the biggest reason why they are locating the Gigafactory to Germany is the fact that German Engineering is outstanding.
Tesla had a goal to meet 500,000 cars of Model 3 in 2018, which was set by Peter Hochholdinger, the production Guru at Tesla, and it is still not met. And for 2019, Tesla targets to sell between 360,000 and 400,000 cars which include the sale of all models.
While Germany is an expensive location, there is a higher scope and potential for automation with electric cars. Additionally, electric cars have a simpler build than combustion engine vehicles. While there are 1,400 components in a combustion engine car, an electric one has 200 at the most, according to ING Analysts.
The setup of Berlin as the second factory outside the US, following China, is a strategic move for Tesla. Now, with the ‘Made in Germany’ tag, which screams quality, the sale of electric cars could go up significantly.
With Tesla set to conquer the electric vehicle world, the question still remains whether it can overcome its production issues, withstand the market pressure that Volkswagen and other native automotive manufacturers would surely bring; only time can tell.
