Alabama produces a million cars a year, in factories that are actually high-tech unlike Tesla’s. You think they are clamoring to bring in an automaker struggling to produce a handful of cars with double the industry injury rate?
Having toured the Tesla plant a few months after touring BMW in Munich, they're worlds apart. I also toured the Fremont plant back in the NUMMI days.
That said, I don't think it's necessarily a huge strike against Tesla; they're at a different scale and at a different stage in the life of the company.
That's pretty fascinating; I'd love to hear more about your various plant tours. Roughly when did you visit BMW and Tesla? Also comparing it to pre-2010 would be interesting. Thanks!
It's just been far too long for me to remember NUMMI that well, but as far as I remember, it was a pretty automated plant. At Tesla, I saw tons of forklifts being driven around manually, occasionally bumping into things, one with a broken piece of pallet stuck under a wheel, people hand-polishing parts, etc. Workers with boomboxes setup in their desk area on the factory floor, fun stuff like that. I don't begrudge them this, as they have tons of space and are building a car company from scratch; it won't be as automated on day or week or even decade 1 as an existing established manufacturer. But when you compare to BMW, where virtually every operation is highly automated, it's quite a change.
Of course, there's also the matter of what the manufacturer is willing to show you (perhaps we didn't visit the forklift floor at BMW!), and also BMW is highly space constrained building cars right in the heart of Munich.
From the video:
"This is the first time that carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) has been used in automotive volume production. The body structure of the BMW i3 consists entirely of this extremely lightweight and durable material, allowing the extra weight of the batteries for the electric drive system to be cancelled out."
Well, likely better than it would have in CA. Back on topic, Mazda, Toyota have plants there, they have the workforce and friendlier reg., which is a plus if you're a MFG.
