People – Page 19033 – I wish I had more to offer

Dyson gives up making his electric car

James Dyson will not revolutionize the world of cars, and builders will always judge him high. The founder and boss of the group of household appliances announced Thursday in an email to employees of the group that he was putting an end to his project to build an electric car , launched two years ago.… Continue reading Dyson gives up making his electric car

Groupe Renault : Communication of Groupe Renault

PRESS RELEASE 2019/10/10Communication of Groupe RenaultBoulogne-Billancourt, October 10th, 2019 – The Board of Directors of Renault will meet tomorrow morning to discuss the corporate governance of the group. A press release will be issued after the conclusion of the meeting.***About Groupe RenaultGroupe Renault has manufactured cars since 1898. Today it is an international multi-brand group,… Continue reading Groupe Renault : Communication of Groupe Renault

Nissan: no-deal Brexit would jeopardise entire European business model

Brexit Imposition of WTO tariffs on exports could put Sunderland plant at risk, says chair Workers on the production line in Sunderland, where Nissan employs 6,000 people. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian A no-deal Brexit would put Nissan’s entire European business model in jeopardy, the car manufacturer has said in its strongest warning yet over the… Continue reading Nissan: no-deal Brexit would jeopardise entire European business model

Boeing partners with Porsche on electric flying car

Oct 10 (Reuters) – U.S. planemaker Boeing Co said on Thursday it was working with Volkswagen’s sports car brand, Porsche, to develop a concept electric flying vehicle capable of transporting people in urban settings. Boeing is already competing with arch-rival Airbus SE and other companies to introduce small self-flying vehicles capable of vertical takeoff and… Continue reading Boeing partners with Porsche on electric flying car

Electric moped startup Revel raises $27.6 million as it eyes new markets

In less than two years, Revel has gone from an idea to a shared electric vehicle startup with more than 1,400 mopeds across Washington D.C., and Brooklyn and Queens, New York. Now, it’s ready to grow up — and beyond these three cities — with a fresh injection of $27.6 million in capital raised in… Continue reading Electric moped startup Revel raises $27.6 million as it eyes new markets

Sources: Lilium is looking to raise up to $500M for its electric flying taxis

“Flying cars” — airborne vehicles designed for urban and other short-distance commutes to replace conventional private automobiles — are (at best) still years away from being a reality, with significant safety, technology and business model hurdles to clear before they ever hit the sky. Now, sources tell us that one of more promising startups in… Continue reading Sources: Lilium is looking to raise up to $500M for its electric flying taxis

Renault CEO tells staff Nissan alliance is key, not personnel

PARIS, Oct 10 (Reuters) – Renault's CEO Thierry Bollore, evoking reports of his potential departure, told staff on Thursday that the future of the carmaker's alliance with Nissan was what mattered, not people, according to two company sources.
A senior management shake-up at Renault is on the cards, a source close to the French government told Reuters on Wednesday, after Le Figaro newspaper reported that chairman Jean-Dominique Senard was poised to kick off a process to replace Bollore.
Speaking to staff on Thursday in an internal video exchange, Bollore referred to the media buzz and said that what mattered for the company was the alliance, and that it was “not a question of people”, the Renault sources said.

Volvo and Geely merging development for engines, still needed in hybrids

Volvo will offload its development of internal combustion engines to a new joint project with parent company Geely, the two companies announced Monday, allowing Volvo's in-house propulsion engineers to concentrate exclusively on electric powertrains.

While Volvo says it believes ICEs are here to stay for the foreseeable future, it is in the early stages of phasing out cars powered exclusively by fossil fuels. Hybrids will remain a part of Volvo's lineup, which means ICE development is still critical to the company's product plans, but that work doesn't necessarily need to be done by Volvo's engineers.

By the middle of the next decade, Volvo expects half its global sales to be EVs and the other half hybrids, the announcement said, and those hybrid engines will be supplied by the new joint operation. Both companies have already begun to spin off their ICE programs from their core operations in preparation for the merger, the announcement said.

This new business will bring roughly 3,000 employees from the Volvo side and 6,000 from Geely, the two automakers anticipate. Neither company plans to cut overall employment figures at all.

“Hybrid cars need the best internal combustion engines. This new unit will have the resources, scale and expertise to develop these powertrains cost efficiently,” said Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson, in the announcement.

Volvo's electrification push is well underway. The company already offers several plug-in hybrid models (though not all are sold in the United States just yet) and its first dedicated EV model, based on the new XC40 crossover, will make its formal debut later this month.

Geely is also pursuing electric cars; the company announced its first BEV for global distribution, the GE11 fastback, earlier in 2019.

Tesla Gigafactory China: Mud, “Basically An Open Field,” Not Gonna Happen — Skeptical Claims Revisited

Invest
Electric Cars
Electric Car Benefits
Electric Car Sales
Solar Energy Rocks
RSS
Advertise
Privacy Policy

Cars

Published on October 3rd, 2019 |

by Zachary Shahan

Tesla Gigafactory China: Mud, “Basically An Open Field,” Not Gonna Happen — Skeptical Claims Revisited

Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook

October 3rd, 2019 by Zachary Shahan

We reported yesterday that Tesla was ending Model 3 Standard Range shipments from the US to China because it was starting to produce the base Model 3 trim in its new (and still under construction) Shanghai gigafactory, “Gigafactory 3.” It may surprise even Tesla optimists that the company was able to go from no construction at all to Model 3 production in such a rapid time, but it surely surprises Tesla skeptics the most. In fact, in light of the milestone, I thought I’d remind people of a handful of claims about Gigafactory 3 from just earlier in the year, a couple of quarters ago. Most of these were published within one month of Elon Musk joining a little ceremony for the Gigafactory 3 groundbreaking on January 7th, but note that skepticism about the factory has been common throughout the year.

In a January 7th article titled “Elon Musk Sees a Future in China for Tesla, and It’s Muddy,” the Bloomberg writer doesn’t say the plan is impossible or unrealistic, but he comes close, while writing about Elon Musk in an unflattering fashion throughout the article. If, at the end of the article, you got the impression that one should be skeptical of Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 plans and the future of Tesla, you would digested exactly the narrative he was pushing.

On January 14th, Forbes published an article titled “Not So Fast: Can Elon Musk Really Open Tesla’s China Gigafactory This Year?” The article, exuding an air of authoritative skepticism, started off like this: “Elon Musk rarely shies away from setting bold targets for Tesla, despite a mixed record for achieving them when promised. So it was in character when he announced the electric-car company’s first Chinese Gigafactory could be operational in about 11 months.

“‘We’re looking forward to hopefully having some initial production of the Model 3 towards the end of this year and achieving volume production next year,’ Musk said at the Shanghai groundbreaking January 7.

“He may be disappointed.

“There’s no precedent for building a large, modern auto-assembly plant and starting its production in under a year, manufacturing experts say. In fact, even Tesla’s official goal of ramping up to 3,000 Model 3 electric sedans per week at some point in 2020 won’t be easy.

“‘Unless he’s mastered some approach that I’m not aware of to do everything in a more effective and efficient way, that lead time to build is going to be really challenging,’ said Laurie Harbour, CEO of manufacturing consultant Harbour Results Inc. in Southfield, Michigan. ‘It definitely seems completely optimistic.'”

Optimistic? Or realistic?

After claiming that Tesla was not known for meetings its production goals (note that Tesla is on track to nail Elon Musk’s 2014 forecast for 2020 production and delivery goals), Business Insider writer and frequent Tesla critic Linette Lopez expressed great skepticism about Elon Musk’s plan to have Tesla producing the Model 3 at its Shanghai gigafactory by the end of 2019. “So far, the China plant is, um, basically an open field with some digging going on,” she said. “It’s harder and harder to believe that there will be Model 3s coming out of the Tesla China gigafactory by the end of the year.”

A February 8th article on GuruFocus by the president of Almington Capital — Merchant Bankers, short Tesla [TSLA] at the time, was titled “Tesla’s Shanghai Plans Don’t Add Up.” The article contained paragraphs like these: “Tesla has been talking about China for a number of years, but not much material came of all that talk. Then, in October, the company announced it had leased a plot of land in Shanghai’s Lingang area. The swampy land had found little interest among potential domestic anchor developers, which goes some way to explaining the slightly below-market $140 million price Tesla agreed to pay. …

“When Musk broke ground at Gigafactory 3, the plot was still nothing but a field with a temporary wall erected around it (and a worryingly muddy field at that). Tesla had claimed to be ramping up construction efforts even before the official groundbreaking, but there was little sign of construction activity, despite the convenient presence of heavy construction machinery at the event.

“Since then, updates have been somewhat scant. Some intrepid observers, however, have provided independent status reports via aerial drones. The most recent video footage of the site was recorded and released on Feb. 5. It shows little in the way of progress. There appears to be some poured concrete, yet there is virtually no visible work activity or sign of life around the place. That is certainly inconsistent with Tesla’s own extremely aggressive timetable.”

To be fair, there’s still mud on the site. But I think you get the point.

Is Elon Musk a magic maker? Or are people just too skeptical? Or have they simply been pushing an agenda, for one biased reason or another, that we can now see was completely disconnected from Tesla’s future in the physical world?

If you’d like to buy a Tesla — whether you believe it exists or is simply elaborate vaporware — and also get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging, feel free to use my referral code: https://ts.la/zachary63404.

About the Author

Zachary Shahan Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. He's also the CEO of Important Media. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao.

Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA] — after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in this company and feels like it is a good cleantech company to invest in. But he offers no investment advice and does not recommend investing in Tesla or any other company.

Advertise with CleanTechnica to get your company in front of millions of monthly readers.

Porsche and Boeing to Partner on Premium Urban Air Mobility Market

“Porsche is looking to enhance its scope as a sports car manufacturer by becoming a leading brand for premium mobility. In the longer term, this could mean moving into the third dimension of travel,” says Detlev von Platen, Member of the Executive Board for Sales and Marketing at Porsche AG. “We are combining the strengths… Continue reading Porsche and Boeing to Partner on Premium Urban Air Mobility Market