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Tesla Is Investing $350 Million In Its Gigafactory, Hiring Hundreds of Workers (cnbc.com)

Just weeks after the massive Gigafactory started producing batteries, Tesla has announced plans to hire more workers and use the facility to make the motor and gearbox for its upcoming Model 3 electric sedan. CNBC reports: Tesla will invest $350 million for the project, and hire an additional 550 people, according to the governor's comments. That will be over and above the company's existing commitment to hiring 6,500 people at the Gigafactory, according to comments made by Steve Hill, the director of the governor's Office of Economic Development, to Nevada newspaper the Nevada Appeal. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made manufacturing efficiency a high priority for the company, but Tesla will require a lot of factory floor to meet its goal of to pumping out 500,000 cars by the end of 2018, and then making one million cars by 2020. Meanwhile, the city of Fremont recently approved Tesla's application for an additional 4.6 million square feet of space there.

5 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Gearbox in electric car by mspohr · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Tesla "gearbox" is just a differential to connect the electric motor to the two drive shafts. There is no clutch. There is only one "gear".
    The electric motor has nearly flat torque from 0 rpm up to 16,000 rpm so they don't need to change gears.

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  2. Re:Gearbox in electric car by AaronW · · Score: 3, Informative

    Tesla needs custom gearboxes for several reasons. First of all, being electric it doesn't need a multi-speed transmission. Second, it has to be able to handle a very high amount of torque all at once since an electric motor can generate high torque at 0 RPM with virtually no lag and very low inertia. Tesla worked with several manufacturers for the Roadster transmission and they all failed miserably due to the high torque involved until they designed and built their own.

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  3. Re:Doesn't work! by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

    If I ever get it to drive 200 miles on a "full 250 mile" charge, I'll wet myself with glee.

    I suspect that you are "doing it wrong". My wife has a Tesla, and had the same problem, but when I drove her car, I got even better mileage than the indicator. So I watched her drive, and then I mansplained what she was doing wrong. Since then she has gotten much better milage.

    In an ICE car, the "accelerator" pedal controls the rate of power going to the engine. If you push on it with your foot, the car speeds up. If you take your foot off the pedal, you coast. On a Tesla, the "accelerator" controls the SPEED OF THE CAR. If you lift your foot, the car thinks you want to slow down, and engages the regenerative brakes. This feeds power back into the battery, but only at about 60% efficiency, so 40% of the power is wasted. Try driving with the power graph displayed, and watch how often it turns orange (regeneration engaged). Practice keeping your foot steady to minimize that. It will make a big difference.

  4. Re:Gearbox in electric car by wildsurf · · Score: 4, Informative

    20%, not 30%. Wind resistance increases with the cube of speed, but energy-per-mile efficiency (assuming all energy is spent fighting wind resistance) is only squared. That's because you spend less time driving a given distance at higher speed.

    The Tesla P100D's dual motors combine for 760 horsepower, which would be more than enough to sustain 200mph+ with proper gearing and tires. By comparison, a Lamborghini Gallardo achieves a top speed of 202mph with just 562 horsepower. The Tesla's motors redline at about 16000rpm, which at the 9.7:1 fixed gearing ratio corresponds to about 155mph. If the gearing ratio were halved, the low-speed acceleration would reduce but the top speed would go up dramatically.

    True, at 200mph the P100D battery pack would only be good for about 40 miles. But gas supercars don't do much better. At top speed, a Bugatti Veyron can burn through an entire 26-gallon tank of gas in just 12 minutes (51 miles).

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  5. Re:Racist or not by silentcoder · · Score: 4, Informative

    Most of those things use IDs that republicans have conveniently declared you can't use to vote with.

    Student IDs for example are not acceptable for voting... fuck knows why, there aren't any SANE reasons to exclude them so we have to assume an insane one... like racism.

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