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.

Comments

MAGA

[amiga3D]

Thanks Donald! Great job!

Re:MAGA

[mmell]

So sad. Making cars that don't run on dead dinosaurs, a choice by a crime-infested manufacturer. They should fix up their existing factory and not create jobs for illegal immigrants. Terrible.

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Coward]

You do know that he only "cares" about blacks and unemployed to piss of the liberals, right?
His goal in creating more jobs is to get people off welfare, thereby decimating core Democrat constituency.
Same reason he wants children to get proper education. Totally unfair!

Re:MAGA

[SuperKendall]

You do know that he only "cares" about blacks and unemployed to piss of the liberals, right?

If true that would be one step ahead of liberals, who actively farm black people like cattle (or those Matrix pods) for votes but don't care about the condition they live in. After all since blacks vote almost all democrats you can abuse them as much as you like and it just doesn't matter.

See: Chicago.

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Coward]

This is what racists actually believe.

Re:MAGA

[AutodidactLabrat]

"Creating more jobs"? Not yet.
Or do you only read fake news?
How many months to plan this?
certainly more than THREE!

Re:MAGA

[AutodidactLabrat]

Proper education?
Not from DeVos Charter schools
Which are UNDERperforming public schools!

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Coward]

That's true only because the PC culture has assigned the label 'racist' to everyone who doesn't publically proclaim the party line. Don't agree? You're racist.

Re:MAGA

[CaptainDork]

The Mac culture has its issues as well.

Re:MAGA

[SuperKendall]

How am I the racist in pointing out how the black community is being taken advantage of? It seems pretty sure the real racists are the ones who harm the black community while claiming to support them. That's some Deep Racism right there.

I'm just trying to help by point out the obvious so some in the community can become Awake, rather than just Woke.

Re:MAGA

[mspohr]

We need DeVos Charter Schools to drag everyone down to the same level as our failed inner city schools.
Make America Dumb Again!

Re:MAGA

[AutodidactLabrat]

Yeah, by all means, let's have the LEAST funded public schools be the problem...oh wait.

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Coward]

You are racist right wing dumbfuck, with a long history of shitposting Superkunt.

Re:MAGA

[mspohr]

I believe that the DeVos schools are very expensive. They're just not any good.

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Coward]

the only ones attempting to take advantage of minorities would be the GOP.
If you did not, then you would have solved the illegal issue long ago rather than simply blocking it.
Likewise, you would have solved the medical issue that you WT always speak about.

All in all, you are as racists and white trash as the rest of your party.

Re:MAGA

[HornWumpus]

Certainly cheaper and better than DC public schools. Which are admittedly the worst performing, best funded public schools in the USA.

Re:MAGA

[SuperKendall]

SMH -- I am neither right wing (I am libertarian, anti-statist) and as my posts clearly show, rather the opposite of racist. I do have a long history but it's of wisdom distributed to help the lost such as yourself, but I can only take you so far and the rest of the journey is up to you.

I will leave the last response to you, here here on your path is your own. Choose well!

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Coward]

And the best of the left speaks up.

Re:MAGA

[AutodidactLabrat]

DC private (there are no charters) do not outperform DC public schools.
Problem is therefore NOT "excess" funding for public schools.

Re: MAGA

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't you just choose not to belabor us at all?

Do everyone else a favor, stop lying to us, when we know you're a dishonest partisan hack and if you must pretend to something, pretend that you're denying us even a chance at your glorious wisdom as you stomp off like a toddler having a tantrum.

It's a win-win.

Re:MAGA

[AutodidactLabrat]

I should have qualified that
DC private schools cherry pick applicants.
For any given economic quartile, private schools produce no better academic outcomes

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Coward]

How am I the racist in pointing out how the black community is being taken advantage of?

Let's see...how to explain it. It may be hard for you to understand.

It seems pretty sure the real racists are the ones who harm the black community while claiming to support them. That's some Deep Racism right there.

Hey you said it yourself...surely you can understand yourself?

I'm just trying to help by point out the obvious so some in the community can become Awake, rather than just Woke.

Ah, let me quote my good and dear friend, SuperKendall, who had these words of wisdom:

It seems pretty sure the real racists are the ones who harm the black community while claiming to support them. That's some Deep Racism right there.

So, SuperKendall, you can see SuperKendall's words, and he's saying that the real racists are the ones who harm the black community, while claiming to support them, just like you, SuperKendall are doing. Take a little time with your self-examination and introspection.

Take responsibility. The power is yours!

Re:MAGA

[AutodidactLabrat]

2000 GM workers losing their jobs on Jan 20
Thanks Donald

Re:MAGA

[AutodidactLabrat]

Don't agree with what?
That White Cops must be blameless when they shoot unarmed men?
In the back yet?
yes, you are a racist if you think blacks are somehow inferior, or stupid for NOT voting for the party of "Voter ID" designed to eliminate black voters.

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Coward]

What are you talking about? There are lots of DC charter schools. And yes the private schools outperform the public ones. I have my kid in a DC public school.

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Coward]

You do know that he only "cares" about blacks and unemployed to piss of the liberals, right?

Sounds like you are projecting, bigly.
You really have no idea why he does what he does.
But it makes sense to you, because that's what you would do.

Re: MAGA

[Anonymous Coward]

You're racist for assuming only white cops shoot black folks in the back, or disproportionately.

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Coward]

Medical issue? What is that, and how does it cause people to "take advantage of minorities"?

Do you even know what it is to take advantage of someone?

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Coward]

You're racist for thinking black people don't carry state-issued ID cards.

Bigotry of low expectations.

Re:MAGA

[silentcoder]

Using "wisdom" and "libertarian" in the same sentence... libertarianism contains all the wisdom of sticking your condoms to the bedpost with thumbtacks for easy access.

Re:MAGA

[silentcoder]

They really don't. There are overwhelming studies that prove chartter schools NEVER outperform public schools - not anywhere. School performance is, at least 80%, determined by school neighbourhood and surrounding social conditions - budgets cannot change that, neither can privatisation (By any name).

The fastest way to improve school performance in the USA would be to set a 15 dollar minimum wage, set up a really solid childcare plan (Trump actually promised one but his cabinent candidate made no mention of it when asked - another forgotten promise ?) and decriminalize drug use with a focus on quality, free, treatment (Which will cost a lot less than all those people in prison for weed).

Those reforms - would increase school performance levels across the USA in a year. The problems with American schools are not in American schools, they are in American societies. You can't fix them with school budgets because the budget has less than nothing to do with it.

Re:MAGA

[AutodidactLabrat]

I remind you that it is the issue of PREFERENTIAL disenfranchisement.
Some blacks do have those acceptable ID's. But the terms for getting or holding such ID are shaped by keeping the black vote down
As the judge in the North Carolina ID case noted, the Voter ID and early voting restrictions were strategically designed to minimize voting by blacks

suck on it racist thugs!

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Cow Ward]

Early ones were, certainly, but that doesn't mean that all are. Plenty of other countries require ID in order to vote, and it's not a racial issue at all there. Surely we can design some sort of requirements that satisfy both sides, yes?

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Cow Ward]

They are underperforming compared to public schools in other states, but are doing better than public schools in Michigan, which is the better comparison. Students are making up for previous deficits faster in Michigan charter schools than they are in Michigan public schools. Moreover, DeVos has been working on introducing more regulations and oversight of charter schools, which was one of the problems with her earlier work.

This isn't to say I support her, just that charter schools in MI are, in fact, doing better than you said.

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Coward]

I know a lot of blacks that vote Republican. They don't live in a ghetto, they have good paying jobs with benefits, pay taxes and live in nice neighborhoods with white neighbors of the same middle class. The solution to getting blacks to vote Republican is to bring in good paying jobs and employ them. If I lived in an inner city shit hole waiting on my government check I'd probably vote for the guy handing me more money too.

Re:MAGA

[AutodidactLabrat]

I remind you that I cited the CURRENT North Carolina PREFERENTIAL DISENFRANCHISEMENT with Voter ID.
You clearly aren't keeping up

Re:MAGA

[AutodidactLabrat]

Wait, Underperforming compared with one of the most destitute Public school systems in the nation, after cherrypicking the most profitable students?
That really helps your case.
Not
Selective quote mining didn't help DeVos case either, since those massive failures were HER company schools

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Cow Ward]

Your original comment made no such claim. Please try to read your own comments.

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Cow Ward]

Given that school performance is strongly linked with family and peer environments, yeah, comparing to public schools in the state is correct. Michigan has been doing poorly in education for a while. Adding charter schools empirically made things better - or did you not read the study?

Re:MAGA

[AutodidactLabrat]

WRong. YOU said that only EARLY voter ID engaged in prefferental treatment.
The circuit court disagrees with your claim

Re:MAGA

[AutodidactLabrat]

Yes and I read several OTHER studies proving this is false ONCE you compensate for Charter Schools exclusion of disadvantaged kids.
As for Michigan, half the Charters do a POORER job than do public schools stuck with the "unteachables"A truly shitty solution.

Re:MAGA

[AutodidactLabrat]

Oh, and Don't Forget, Charters in Michigan are either flush with success based on cherry picked students, Or Abysmal in teaching that great unwashed left over

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Cow Ward]

Show me where I said that. What I said was:

Early ones were, certainly, but that doesn't mean that all are. Plenty of other countries require ID in order to vote, and it's not a racial issue at all there. Surely we can design some sort of requirements that satisfy both sides, yes?

Nowhere do I say "only early ones were preferential".

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Cow Ward]

From that article:

But half the charters perform only as well, or worse than, Detroit’s traditional public schools.

Which means half did better, no? And if half are equivalent or worse, then on average, they're better - no matter what proportion those half are of worse vs. equal, if half are better, the average is higher.

To be clear, I'm not saying the charter school situation in Michigan is ideal; they lack some regulation that would improve things considerably.

Re:MAGA

[AutodidactLabrat]

No, it means that half DID NO WORSE.
Nice try though!

Re:MAGA

[AutodidactLabrat]

By all means, keep telling yourself that
Texas lost its appeal of the anti-black Voter ID today.
That's two!!!

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Cow Ward]

No, if they're specifically saying "half did the same or worse", then they're covering "the same" already. There can be three options: worse, the same, or better. Half are the same or worse; therefore, the other half must be better.

Re:MAGA

[Anonymous Cow Ward]

So you're acknowledging that I didn't say "only EARLY voter ID engaged in prefferental [sic] treatment", yes?

Gearbox in electric car

[dfsmith]

I was curious as to why Tesla needs special gearboxes, but apparently the Model S uses a 9.73:1 single-gear reduction. I guess this lets the engineering team tweak the voltage to torque ratios (as opposed to rewinding the motors and modifying the drive circuitry). https://forums.tesla.com/forum...

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[mspohr]

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.

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[AaronW]

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.

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[avandesande]

Gear boxes for electric cars are pretty unique because of ratios and torque requirements. Think back ot the several years work to develop a two speed transmission that ultimately failed.

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[sit1963nz]

Smaller motors running at higher RPMs produce the same output horsepower as a slower/larger motor. The tradeoff is then using a fixed reduction gearbox vs increased motor size. For a great example of this, look at your electric drill vs an AC powered industrial motor of the same output rating

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[avandesande]

Actually they wanted a two speed transmission but every attempt failed. This is why the top speed is limited in the Tesla.

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[Anonymous Coward]

The torque isn't the only problem; you can design for that. What really killed the initial gearbox is the 14.000 RPM required to achieve a 125 MPH top speed. Car petrol engines are about half that, of course. Bikes can get that high, but then the torques are *much* lower.

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[Anonymous Coward]

electric drill

Those are powered by AC too, also you're comparing universal motors with induction motors

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly, the new roadster is supposed to have 2-3 gears, but the transmission will pretty much be titanium. Very expensive titanium.
If they can actually make it work, That car will take out anything on the road today ( we will see ).

Windbourne (moderating).

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[Anonymous Coward]

My electric drill is battery powered DC.

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[phantomfive]

What is so difficult about getting a two-speed transmission? I feel like that's something we have a lot of experience designing.......

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[lgw]

The top speed is mostly limited by the battery life - top speed goes with the cube root of horsepower. Increase the top speed by 10% and your "top speed battery life" drops by 30%. Teslas are great toys for US roads, but a joke on the Autobahn.

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[wildsurf]

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).

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[serviscope_minor]

At top speed, a Bugatti Veyron can burn through an entire 26-gallon tank of gas in just 12 minutes

But that's OK because IIRC, the tyres are only rated for 6 minutes at top speed.

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[Anonymous Coward]

Tesla have some cool tech and all, but your above statement is not true.

Their model s P90 motor I believe is nominally a 7000 rpm motor. After this it goes into field weakening, where it starts to drop torque as speed increases. Power is kept somewhat up there as power=speed*torque, where the increased speed accounts for some of the lost torque. But acceleration is only affected by torque at a constant gear. See this old chart of how the old Roadster compares to a Camaro using variable gears

Even if you don`t care about top speed, you could in theory achieve slightly higher efficiency with variable gears

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[stoatwblr]

A single speed gearbox is much stronger than a multiple speed one, as all components and force vectors can be optimised.

Making an equally strong multispeed gearbox must be larger (to accomodate the extra gears) and larger to accomodate heavier components.

There's only so much space available in the design and automakers have been producing "weak" boxes for a long time on the basis that it increases their servicing business and 99% of drivers never go near the torque peak on a regular or sustained basis.

Yes, you could use a stronger multispeed gearbox, but the odds are it won't fit in the available space. Automotive systems are always full of tradeoffs.

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[phantomfive]

There's only so much space available in the design and automakers have been producing "weak" boxes for a long time on the basis that it increases their servicing business and 99%

That's...........

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[stoatwblr]

My math teacher at high school was an automotive designer. He related a story specifically about gearboxes and how he was ordered to despec the componentry to ensure they would eventually fail in service

He quit the industry not long after that.

Re:Gearbox in electric car

[phantomfive]

I'll bet it was a Chrysler van.

Doesn't work!

[kamapuaa]

Well that's $350 million wasted. I drive 200 miles each way to my ranch each weekend, no way I could do that in an electric vehicle. Electric cars are a fad.

Re:Doesn't work!

[speedplane]

Well that's $350 million wasted. I drive 200 miles each way to my ranch each weekend, no way I could do that in an electric vehicle. Electric cars are a fad.

The tech isn't there yet, and it's moving slowly, but it's still moving in the right direction. Give it time and you'll get to your ranch on an all-electric vehicle.

Re:Doesn't work!

[ShanghaiBill]

I drive 200 miles each way to my ranch each weekend, no way I could do that in an electric vehicle.

I realize you are trolling, but still want to point out that a Tesla could handle that easily, as long as your ranch has electrical outlets.

Re:Doesn't work!

[Falos]

I thought it was stranger s/he's making a 400mile road trip across states on an every-week basis. Willfully. Whatever the scenario, it's hardly one I'd inflict on myself.

Using it as a vague yet fact-consistent length of measurement rather than something you're able to pedant.

Using pedant as a verb, DWI.

Re:Doesn't work!

[AaronW]

The entry level will have a 200 mile range. I'm sure there will be versions with more than a 200 mile range. As long as there is charging at the ranch it isn't a problem. I drive over 200 miles in my model S without any problems. Also, adding 20-50 miles of range at a supercharger doesn't take very long. When the supercharger kicks in on my model S it charges at over 300 miles/hour and my car is a 1st generation. The current ones charge faster since mine is limited to 90KW (revision A battery pack) and the new ones charge at 135KW and may soon hit 150KW. With my car, if I had to add 20 miles of range and my battery were at 20-40% it would take approximately 4 minutes to add 20 miles of range.

Being smaller and lighter I expect the model 3 will gain range quite a bit faster than the model S, since the same amount of power will provide more range.

On my last trip to Reno I had to stop in Truckee to use the restroom at the nearby grocery store. In the time it took me to use the restroom and buy a couple items I had another 50 miles of range.

I generally find that the speed of charging at a destination isn't all that important as long as I can be fully charged overnight.

Re:Doesn't work!

[Anonymous Coward]

Given that the max range of a Teslsa is reported to be 265 miles on a charge you easily drive to the ranch on friday, plug in over the weekend, and drive back to work fully charged on Monday. You seem to be ill-informed sir.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Model_S

Re:Doesn't work!

[PolygamousRanchKid]

I thought it was stranger s/he's making a 400mile road trip across states on an every-week basis.

400 miles is "just down the road" is Texan mileage units. Anything farther than 400 mile is "just down the road, aways."

Re:Doesn't work!

[AutodidactLabrat]

yeah, blame it all on electric vehicles
After all, the electric bullet trains of Japan can only go....1500 miles
Any reason we can't have Charge stations every 50 miles, like we have gas stations?
Only politics, only politics.

Re:Doesn't work!

[Anonymous Coward]

huh. How odd. Our Tesla runs 250 MPC, and will take us up to 14,000' / 4300 m peaks as well.
As to electricity, if you do not have electricity out there, i.e. you have to go 400 miles, then you are right. It will not work for you.
BUT, then again, it is easy enough to put solar/wind on the ranch and charge it.

Re:Doesn't work!

[Anonymous Coward]

don't forget that Tesla is working on a new ultra charger that will make the 350 KW look like a baby. Supposedly, it will be around 600 KW. Full charge in less than 20 minute. 80% in less than 5 minutes.
And yeah, I have been amazed that a simple 20 amp/120 V line is all that we use for 98-99% of our charging on 2013 85 MS.

Windbourne (moderating).

Re:Doesn't work!

[tempo36]

Eeeehh....I wish I could agree. But I drive a Tesla X with a 90 kWh battery. If I ever get it to drive 200 miles on a "full 250 mile" charge, I'll wet myself with glee.

Last weekend left a Supercharger with 230 miles remaining range, drove 90 miles at 68 mph and reached my destination with 110 miles of range remaining. Thankfully I found a L2 charger to plug into while I visited friends so I could make it the 90 miles back to the Supercharger on the way home.

I wish I could do 200 miles without white knuckles or driving 55 mph with the climate control off.

p.s. I agree the author was probably trolling, and with 100 kWh batteries and larger he totally is a troll, but at 90 kWh and below...sort of right.

Re:Doesn't work!

[wbr1]

Yep, because everyone's driving habits are the same as yours. That makes it a fad. Love the logic.

Re: Doesn't work!

[ralphsiegler]

The weekend ranches my friends in Texas have are just land with animals for investment grazing on them. No buildings much less outlets. Basically a camping trip to monitor and move animals, have vet stop by, etc. But that's far removed from Tesla normal use case...

Re: Doesn't work!

[ralphsiegler]

No, economics. There aren't enough electric cars in the USA to justify that and won't be for a decade. Other countries like China and some European countries could justify that perhaps. If it was profitable here someone would do it.

Re: Doesn't work!

[AutodidactLabrat]

Certainly there won't be while oil continues to get subsidies to the tune of 40 BILLION per year, not counting the hundreds of billions spent to, as Dick Cheney said in 1999 his open letter to Bill Clinton demanding an attack on Iraq, "secure ...a significant portion of the world's oil"
now, what were you saying about economics?
Let the profiteer pay the costs and electric cars will dominate the road

Re: Doesn't work!

[Anonymous Coward]

No, economics. There aren't enough electric cars in the USA to justify that and won't be for a decade. Other countries like China and some European countries could justify that perhaps. If it was profitable here someone would do it.

The economics have already justified it. The Electrical Grid CROSSES the country already.

Re:Doesn't work!

[Anonymous Coward]

There ain't 200 miles of road anywhere in Hawaii, brah.

Re:Doesn't work!

[ShanghaiBill]

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.

Re:Doesn't work!

[thegarbz]

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

My neighbour is a Taxi driver for Schipol airport. Their entire fleet is made of Teslas. He gets that mileage twice daily with one stop at the Zuidoost supercharger for a lunchbreak.

You're doing it wrong.

Re:Doesn't work!

[tempo36]

Yeah...nope. But I do appreciate the mansplaining. For the record, my wife (who expends no effort to drive conservatively) gets WAY worse mileage than I do. It's staggering.

But I've tested the heck out of this thing. I have tested this out with and without cruise control. City driving and freeway driving. Long drives and short drives. With and without climate control. I've shut it down to "Sport" and even tested it out locked down in Valet mode. I've drafted, I've coasted, I've driven it like the Prius I used to own. I have compared it to a Model S in which I can effortlessly pull 290 watts/mile and in which I had to actually try hard to break 325 watts/mile.

But nope, my P90D Model X typically struggles under any conditions to be below 425 watts/mile. It's so ridiculous I've even taken the numbers to Tesla Service and seen if they think something is wrong, and their answer is that it's "within normal limits." But even on their best test drive with the car sitting in a warm shop prior to testing and with a previous drive to get the battery packed warmed up, they were only able to get 390 watts/mile with climate control off and Sport mode on. In their words "your lifetime consumption of 410-420 watts/mile seems good". That means 215-220 miles of range at best on a full tank and in practice I find it to typically be worse at normal freeway speeds.

p.s. The power graph is orange when you're burning energy. It's green during regen. Get your colors right before you try and "explain" to someone how an EV works.

Re:Doesn't work!

[tempo36]

On a Tesla, the "accelerator" controls the SPEED OF THE CAR.

Also inaccurate by the way. If you keep your foot on the accelerator at the exact same point and the car moves from a flat to a hill, you will slow down, not maintain speed. Here is Seattle we have a lot practice with the hill thing. You need to press further if you want to maintain speed on the hill.

Re:Doesn't work!

[hattig]

It's good to see that the problems are being worked on, even to the level where the most miserable arguments (what if i'm driving through the sahara and there are no charging spots) are being invalidated.

The only thing is getting the supercharger network even more densely connected.

Re:Doesn't work!

[tempo36]

Those are all Tesla S cars at Schipol, which get much better mileage. I have driven an S and had no problem getting good mileage. The X is a different car and notably harder to achieve good mileage on. If I can drive an S efficiently without any difficulty but struggle with an X, it seems unlikely I'm "doing it wrong."

Re:Doesn't work!

[thegarbz]

Right, sorry missed that. Agree the X has quite underwhelming range.

Re: Doesn't work!

[billdale]

"Well that's $350 million wasted. I drive 200 miles each way to my ranch each weekend, no way I could do that in an electric vehicle. Electric cars are a fad." You, sir, have had your head stuck up your butt for more than ten years now if you think that is true... If you weren't such a Luddite determined to badmouth anything that does not run on fossil fuels, you would have noticed that not only have there been powerful, extremely efficient EVs for the last many years capable of making that 200 mile trip, but if you weren't so pig headed you could have been saving some VERY serious cash meantime--- surely you've been spending thousands of dollars a year on gasoline. That money could have been spent more reasonably on a solar roof for the ranch, and a Powerwall to store the electricity at the ranch for when you are there and need to recharge, Not only would you be saving the cost of gasoline and oil changes, but tune-ups and related costs as well. You have the IDEAL situation to be driving electric and not even realizing it. And if you think it does not apply to YOU because you happen to need a pickup truck, you are STILL WRONG on that count--- I have been driving a fully electric Chevy pickup for years now... yes, a rugged, powerful conversion... but Tesla will be selling EV pickups and big rigs soon. You have NO excuse for NOT driving electric, saving lots of cash, and stop making those oil ogres richer than they already are.

Re:Doesn't work!

[eionmac]

I have a problem. End points of my main long journey are about 350 miles apart, I usually fill up on petrol (gas) at half tank so never go more than 200 mile between fill up stops. I would want electric vehicles to have same ability, . i.e . top up to full in say 15 minutes during half way stop. This is the critical factor to occasional long distance use, when normal commutes etc are about 60 miles per day.
I rejected a hybrid because of cost, and until electric-top ups are both cost ( money) and time (short time) they do not have any benefit except in commuter areas, which I appreciate helps urban living and health. It might leads to an urban person have a short distance car and hiring a petrol( gas) cas for weekend or long trips.

Re:Doesn't work!

[Razed By TV]

Seems hugely counter-intuitive to normal cars. When I take my foot off the accelerator, I want the car to coast.

They should have lied...

[Anonymous Coward]

and claimed they were going to invest more but decided against that because of Trump. Instead, they're helping Trump which is morally wrong.

Re:They should have lied...

[sxpert]

trump is just a fad, at most, he'll stay there 8 years. Tesla, on the other end, is here to stay for a bit longer...

How's that feel Texas?

[JoeyRox]

You were in the running for the Gigafactory but then decided that repaying political favors to your car dealerships was more important and blocked Tesla's ability to sell directly to their customers.

Re:How's that feel Texas?

[SpankiMonki]

Nevada got taken to the cleaners on the Gigafactory deal, so I'm sure Texas feels just fine.

Re:How's that feel Texas?

[JoeyRox]

Yeah, having leading-edge tech development just 3 1/2 hours of the bay area in a low-tax zone will be horrible for Nevada going forward.

Re:How's that feel Texas?

[Anonymous Coward]

According to the state numbers, they break-even in under 10 years, and that was under OLD numbers.
Now, they will probably break even in far less time.
BUT hey, do not let facts get in the way of your rant. I am sure that you feel better lying to everybody about it.


Windbourne ( moderating ).

Re:How's that feel Texas?

[TheRaven64]

The key word in the summary is 'hundreds'. It brings the total that Tesla is planning on hiring to 7,000. Nevada is giving Tesla $1.3bn over 20 years, so that works out at $65m/year, or $10K/worker. It's a pretty big gamble that the state will take $10K/year more in tax revenues per worker than if the factory were not there. They're betting that the existence of the Tesla factory will spur other job-creating manufacturing industry.

Re:How's that feel Texas?

[JoeyRox]

The projected economic impact of the Gigafactory to Nevada is $100b.

Racist or not

[Okian Warrior]

This is what racists actually believe.

We have to get back into the mode where we can make verifiable statements without the other side calling "racist" all the time.

At this point, I think it's a knee-jerk reaction that the left "just always does". Always call "racist"! If it shuts down the conversation, great! If not, you've lost nothing and can try something else.

It's historically clear that local Democratic rule of minority areas has failed. Areas like Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, Ferguson, Watts, Memphis, Flint, and so on.

Saying this is not being racist.

Detroit, as an example, is well known for graft and corruption. Democratic policies at the national level encouraged manufacturing jobs to leave the area, resulting in massive unemployment and a long drift into squalor.

Saying this is also not being racist.

The situation can realistically be described as an experiment that failed, and perhaps the reverse experiment should be tried: hold local governments responsible for their actions with stiff penalties and jail time, and reversing the national trend to bring back local jobs.

Saying this is also not being racist.

This is what racists actually believe.

Racists actually believe that blacks are inferior to whites.

Actually believing that we have political problems, failed policies with suggested improvements, and pathos for the state of our inner cities, is most definitely not something that racists believe.

Re:Racist or not

[Anonymous Coward]

The situation can realistically be described as an experiment that failed, and perhaps the reverse experiment should be tried: hold local governments responsible for their actions with stiff penalties and jail time, and reversing the national trend to bring back local jobs.

Republicans are no better at holding the government accountable than the Democrats are. We the people need to come together. Propagating GOP dogma it's the Democrats fault keeps us divided.

Re:Racist or not

[Anonymous Coward]

Another racist RWNJ in denial, going by your shitposting history.

Re:Racist or not

[Anonymous Coward]

We have to get back into the mode where we can make verifiable statements without the other side calling "racist" all the time.

Start opposing racist and bigoted statements that are merely being made for partisan aggrandizement, and you'll change your mode.

For the better.

At this point, I think it's a knee-jerk reaction that the left "just always does".

At this point, I think that the right "just about always" ignores racism, and bigotry, because they find it easier to blame the left than ask questions about their own actions.

The only time they don't, is when they're convinced they're being persecuted.

Always call "racist"! If it shuts down the conversation, great! If not, you've lost nothing and can try something else.

And the right always calls "race card" to shut down a conversation, and blame the left. As usual. It never works though, you'd think you'd notice that.

It's historically clear that local Democratic rule of minority areas has failed. Areas like Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, Ferguson, Watts, Memphis, Flint, and so on.

A real report.

You're also neglecting the widespread poverty across the country, for some odd reason, that you can never name, because it's diverse in its aspects, not a concentrated ghetto you can attack. Note how you didn't name a single place in Alabama, Mississippi, West Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky...but just picked a few cities that you perceive as black to attack and condemn.

Hmm. That's very telling.

Saying this is not being racist.

Actually it is when you chose the way you are going about it. And partisan. That's your problem. You're racist and you're partisan.

If you don't want to be...then change.

Detroit, as an example, is well known for graft and corruption.

Graft and corruption is known across the country.

Spare us the pictures you have of Detroit, if Republicans could fix it, why hasn't their governor done it?

Democratic policies at the national level encouraged manufacturing jobs to leave the area, resulting in massive unemployment and a long drift into squalor.

Saying this is also not being racist.

It is however, partisan. You didn't even identify any policies. You're just saying "Hur-hur, Democrats did it" and that's it.

It's not a good argument. It's a terrible one, and you should recognize that failing. At least give us the courtesy of a reasoning based on some substance.

The situation can realistically be described as an experiment that failed, and perhaps the reverse experiment should be tried: hold local governments responsible for their actions with stiff penalties and jail time, and reversing the national trend to bring back local jobs.

Saying this is also not being racist.

Oh, you mean instead of say, the Michigan state government, taking over cities, the cities should be freed to exercise their own rights and sovereignty?

Sorry, but while the Republican party purports to care about local rights, they really go out

Re: Racist or not

[Anonymous Coward]

It's historically clear that local Democratic rule of minority areas has failed. Areas like Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, Ferguson, Watts, Memphis, Flint, and so on.

Oops, missed a tag somewhere. Anyway, I was saying in the removed parts about how you seem to think that a city had the rule to cause something, and even included Watts, which is a mere neighborhood. Then I linked to the report on the Watts Riot, and to Ferguson, and either Baltimore or Chicago. Not sure, But they do have investigations where the DOJ found severe civil rights issues in their police departments. Knowing and understanding that might help you. It would certainly help Jeff Sessions who thinks he is supposed to be their friend.

But hey, as I followed up, you should also look at poverty in America. It isn't just a problem for urban minorities. They just make a convenient target. And you should look at the DOJ's settlement with McKesson. Drugs aren't just an urban problem.

Re:Racist or not

[AutodidactLabrat]

We already know that those who support Voter ID intend to disenfranchise poor and specifically black voters, in order to keep out the 40 or so people who have committed this crime in the last 24 years.

Re:Racist or not

[lgw]

We have to get back into the mode where we can make verifiable statements without the other side calling "racist" all the time.

"Racist" has merely taken on a new meaning.

In judo, you concede by tapping out. In a schoolyard fight, you concede by saying "uncle". In an internet fight, you concede by saying "racist".

Re:Racist or not

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Are you saying that minorities are not capable enough to go to the DMV? How racist of you.
2. Yeah, they definitely don't care about voter fraud. It's because racism. /s Sorry sweetie, you used your "racism" card too much, and now it's alllll worn out. Google "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."

Re:Racist or not

[Anonymous Coward]

40?

https://ballotpedia.org/Dead_people_voting

Okay, 1982 isn't "in the last 24 years" though it's unclear as to why you chose that particular time frame?

Anyway 77k dead voter registrations in New York alone is pretty bad, especially considering that 2600 of them have apparently voted at some point (no time frame given for the votes, though).

Some people also fear that illegal immigrants have carte blanche to vote in California provided they get licensed to drive:

http://www.snopes.com/california-motor-voter-act/

Much has been discussed about whether or not they could actually vote in this manner, but nobody seems to want to admit that corrupt State officials could easily allow it, especially if they thing the demographics that would benefit from this loophole would favor the incumbent. Such votes would probably not appear to be fraudulent since it would be so hard to fact-check whether or not the voters were legally entitled to vote (as opposed to checking death records, which is comparatively easy to do).

Re:Racist or not

[Anonymous Coward]

We have to get back into the mode where we can make verifiable statements without the other side calling "racist" all the time.

"Racist" has merely taken on a new meaning.

In judo, you concede by tapping out. In a schoolyard fight, you concede by saying "uncle". In an internet fight, you concede by saying "racist".

Actually, when it comes to being racist, since you can't defend yourself when you opponent has spotted the cloying stench of your bullshit, what you do is go on the attack, and blame others for pointing out your racism. It's the Lex Luthor Gambit: "No Superman, I'm not robbing a bank, you're oppressing me with your alien tyranny!"

This also works when you're being a fascist, homophobic, Nazi liar. If someone does that? Accuse them of being the lying Nazi who hates gays! 150% no-success rate except with idiots.

And if you have a small penis, you claim you have a really big one, and when other people say it doesn't matter, you insist that they're only saying that because they have a small one, unlike your ginormous rod of power.

Sorry you don't know how the Internet works, lgw, I'll send you an updated FAQ.

Re:Racist or not

[Anonymous Coward]

Black people carry IDs, how else would they drive, buy anything, and rent/lease/buy apartments/houses?

Oh, right, you must not think black people should have any autonomy, because the state tit is all they need to survive.

Re:Racist or not

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Actually, the racists in Alabama almost closed the DMV. Kinda hard to go when they try to shut it down.

2. Nope, you don't care about voter fraud, you just used it to pass a voting discrimination act targeted at minorities. Sorry pisspot, you got caught and nobody believes you. Bing "Running the Idiot Tailors out of Town"

Re:Racist or not

[silentcoder]

>1. Are you saying that minorities are not capable enough to go to the DMV? How racist of you.

Nobody is saying that. We're saying poor minimum wage hourly workers generally can't go to the DMV because if they miss a day of work they get fired. That these are overwhelmingly minorities is not something wrong with the people - it's just a convenient fact of historic economics which current racist lawmakers are exploiting.

>. Yeah, they definitely don't care about voter fraud.
I'm sure a lot of their supporters do. But those supporters are idiots. Voter ID doesn't prevent voter fraud - it IS voter fraud, the single largest and most common kind !
Stopping legitimate voters from being able to vote is the ONLY significant voter fraud that happens in America.

>Sorry sweetie, you used your "racism" card too much, and now it's alllll worn out. Google "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."
So you won't FIX the racism... you'll just go neener-neener "I can't hear you" little white snowflake ? Racism has not been cried too much - hell current uses don't even cover most current instances of the problem ! If anything it's underreported. That there is enough cries for you to not sound completely crazy to YOURSELF pretending it's said to much just PROVES HOW FUCKING RACIST YOU REALLY ARE.

Re:Racist or not

[silentcoder]

Dead people on voter registrations does not equal, or even IMPLY that a SINGLE dead person voted. All it implies is that in the time between voter registrations happening and elections - some people die and sometimes the rolls aren't updated fast enough.

This is by no means indicative of any risk that those names are voting - if you look for actual dead registered voters who SHOWED UP TO VOTE - the numbers drop to basically zero.

Re:Racist or not

[silentcoder]

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.

Re:Racist or not

[Anonymous Cow Ward]

For which of the things "drive, buy anything, and rent/lease/buy apartments/houses" would a student ID be acceptable? I am not aware of a state where a drivers license is unacceptable as a voter ID, and that's normally what you'd use to a) drive, b) buy anything that's age-related (cigs, alcohol, etc.) or sign contracts for property.

Re:Racist or not

[skam240]

"It's historically clear that local Democratic rule of minority areas has failed. Areas like Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, Ferguson, Watts, Memphis, Flint, and so on.

Saying this is not being racist."

While I would certainly agree that Democratic party rule in those mainly minority filled areas failed and that saying as such is certainly not racist, using a handful of areas to rationalize a statement about Democratic rule in minority areas failing in a general sense is naive and foolish and you clearly have your partisan blinders on. Most major urban areas, even in Red states, are run by Democrats and a lot of them do pretty well. Just because you can name a handful of cities with large numbers of minorities where things arent working well doesnt mean things arent working well in quite a few other cities.

Not Tech news

[Luthair]

Press releases from Tesla are not necessarily news for nerds.

Re:Not Tech news

[Anonymous Coward]

True, but 75% of /. commentators are clearly eager to fellate Elon. He's the techies version of a Tigerbeat Poster Boy.

Nothing says Look at me, Im a Rich Faggot!

[Anonymous Coward]

Like driving a Tesla.

Rich envy. From the right. How ironic.

[Anonymous Coward]

For all your wailing at taxing the wealthy being "envy", you really do have a problem with them spending money on things you personally wouldn't want to buy if you were rich. That's way worse than envy.

Subject

[Anonymous Coward]

Gigafactory cool.
Custom motors cool.
Power walls cool.
Expansion capacity cool.
Auto batteries mandatory.

No cellphone batteries!

JJ

GF2 here we come.

Pretty ambitious

[Radical Moderate]

" Tesla will require a lot of factory floor to meet its goal of ... making one million cars by 2020. "

Tesla produced about 25,000 vehicles in Q3 2016, so they'll have to increase that by tenfold in 4 years. Not impossible, but sustaining that kind of growth brings all kinds of challenges, and the auto industry seems to be heading into a bit of a slump. And the incoming administration doesn't seem very green-friendly. Unless you mean the color of money.

Care to elaborate?

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless They Pay Tesla per job they are not losing.

Like Carrier.

Price reduction

[burtosis]

I really hope these cells become cheap and available to the general public for puchase in small quantities.

He might not be

[rsilvergun]

buddy of mine moved to another city once to get a job. Better job, but not amazing job (he lived in a po-dunk town, no college degree). Took months before he'd saved enough to move the wife/kids up with him. He was commuting 150 miles every weekend (300 total) so 400 isn't a stretch. You'd be amazed what you can do when you have no choice.

Re:He might not be

[Anonymous Coward]

Gawd, you would have thought he would have enjoyed the weekends without the family. What a glorious time.

Super Ken Doll

[Anonymous Coward]

Every time I see you post, I can't help but imagine some plastic caricature of a generic white frat boy with absolutely nothing between his legs but shiny beige skin. Because your posts have no more insight than I would expect from an actual Ken Doll.

Liberals Hate This

[Anonymous Coward]

1) He is building in the USA, and in a conservative state to boot. A liberal would realize that the USA is the root of all evil and will naturally build in Mexico or China to mitigate the unfair advantage that America (aka whites) have.
2) He is building something. A liberal should not build anything, they should just decry all those evil republicans that are doing something in life
3) He is a white man.
4) He is a fan of math and science. True liberals do not believe in math and science. They instead believe in feelings and the power of diversity.

Sure wish they made powerwalls for RV's

[Anonymous Coward]

Surely there would be a mind boggling market for This Worldwide?

Re:Sure wish they made powerwalls for RV's

[sxpert]

you mean, to replace those extra expensive victron energy power pods ?

How many are US citizens

[sethstorm]

Would be nice to know if these are filled by citizens, especially those looking for work.

Tesla Gigafactory and degeneration

[billdale]

How did an article on something as positive as the Gigafactory degenerate into a War of the Trolls?!

How many are US Citizens?

[sethstorm]

Would be nice to know that citizens are filling these jobs, especially those looking for work.