Items that have caught my eye recently: Tesla’s probable Austin, TX plant; Tesla Model Y problems and fixes; Green license plates and privileges
**** Tesla’s probable Austin, TX plant
Austin has been hotter than ever in the past week as news emerges that Tesla has apparently settled on a plant site for its Texas Cybertruck and Model Y plant. And, it’s as if Elon had read my memo to him published in this blogsite on May 2, 2020. The site Tesla is considering is right where I recommended to Elon in my “consulting report” that Tesla should locate. Specifically, the 2,100 acre site under consideration — three times the size of Giga Berlin! — is about 3 miles north of the intersection of Hwy 71 and Hwy 130 just northeast of Austin’s ABIA airport. The property, currently used as a gravel pit (with a cement plant) is adjacent to Harold Green Road and Hwy 130, extending mostly northeast of this intersection. Apparently there is some land on the west side of 130, but that would not be adequate for Tesla’s proposed four to five million square foot manufacturing facility that will be about the same size as its Fremont, CA facility.
Negotiations are very active between Tesla and various state and local government agencies, as well as the Del Valle Independent School District where under Texas state law, tax incentives totaling about $68 million over ten years could be extended to Tesla. The Austin Business Journal ran the initial story and not one but two updates on June 18th. Despite a click bait-headlined article in Electrek June 18th that Tesla had “acquired” the property, Musk stated later that Tesla only had an option to buy it and was still negotiating with all parties (including Tulsa, Oklahoma of course – LOL). This is a far better plant site than the previously rumored Hutto site – closer to the city of Austin, in Travis – not Williamson County, just closer to everything important.
Austin Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President of Economic Development Charisse Bodisch commented among other things: “[the proposed site] would be a perfect fit for an environmentally focused organization like Tesla.” If you will read my previous blog, you know I wholeheartedly concur – not for sentimental reasons but for solid business and strategic reasons for Tesla, given Musk’s strategic goals. Make no mistake about it this would be a HUGE win for Texas and Austin – prestige, 5,000 to 10,000 well-paying Tesla jobs, dozens of suppliers with even more jobs locating in the immediate plant area and to the East where land is undeveloped and cheap, close ties with the University of Texas about 12 miles west, etc. A further dangling plum is that Musk may well move Tesla’s headquarters out of California to Austin – perhaps at the new plant site or maybe even downtown.
There are three incentive programs from which Tesla may be able to benefit. One is the Del Valle Independent School District tax relief program worth an estimated $68.1 million to Tesla over ten years. The second is a property tax break from Travis County that could be worth about $14.65 million to Tesla over ten years. The third program could be a state incentive package from the Texas Enterprise Fund – no telling how large at this point.
I cannot fathom why any Texas official would be against this move by Tesla. However, never underestimate the power of the oil and gas lobby in Texas. Tesla’s Cybertruck plant would be the third major auto plant in Texas after Toyota’s San Antonio truck plant and GM’s plant at Arlington. As the proposed site is about 26 miles from my house I hope to watch this plant being built. Rest assured; I will keep you attuned to all aspects of this developing story.
PS: Latest Friday evening news is that the Travis County Commissioners Court will meet next Tuesday June 23 and among other things in an open session consider Tesla’s proposal to build its Gigafactory in East Austin. Of course, this meeting will also include discussion of the various local tax incentives that Tesla is pursuing. No decision action is expected in the meeting. You can watch that meeting by using the link embedded in this Austin Business Journal article.
**** Model Y problems and fixes
Many who follow the automotive marketspace are well aware of customer complaints and problems with early production Tesla Model Ys. Some were first noted by Sandy Munro in his Model Y teardown YouTube videos. Others have been voiced in YouTube videos from Tesla fans who eagerly bought some of Tesla’s first Model Ys. One of the first such problems with some Ys was the noisy heat pump that I discussed in a recent blog.
Other major complaints have centered on body panel fit and poor paint quality. More minor complaints have concerned sloppy interior assembly problems such as mis-aligned rear seats, rear seat flip-down switches that didn’t work, and the like. Some of these problems are typical of any new car or truck model’s startup production. Tesla clearly rushed this model into production before some parts were properly engineered and before assembly line workers could be properly trained.
Furthermore, Tesla has been unable to ramp up production volume of the Model Y as fast as it desired – -to the point where Elon Musk has gotten personally involved in solving production line problems and improving the quality of this amazing vehicle.
Ryan Shaw, one of those passionate Tesla fans who bought one of the first Model Ys, only to have a whole list of nagging problems with his Y, recently released a YouTube video that highlights the progress Tesla is making is fixing their early production model Y glitches. Of course, the burden of the repairs falls squarely on Tesla dealers. In turn, for most Model Y fixes they need replacement parts and in a few cases re-designed replacement parts. In some cases, the repairs can be accomplished in the field by Tesla’s mobile service technicians.
In his video Shaw gives an honest description of his four (!) trips to his dealer to get all but one problem fixed. He notes that Tesla dealers are really committed to this job and are going out of their way to make things right to Model Y owners. The noisy heat pump problem (even after the aforementioned cavitation problem is fixed) will be further mitigated by a noise shield that will encase it as with the Model 3’s A/C compressor. We know Musk has been excoriated by Sandy Munro and others for Fremont’s outdated and poorly functioning paint shop and that it is one of his top priorities to fix. While Tesla’s new Berlin Gigafactory will have a state-of-the-art paint shop, it is extremely difficult to improve or overhaul Fremont’s paint shop while the plant is in full volume production.
In the meantime, as with its other models, Tesla continues to upgrade the Model Y with the recent addition of a wireless cell-phone charger and two “C” outlets to replace the rear USB receptacles, as well as ongoing incremental software upgrades such as in-car payment options for Supercharger use.
The early Model Y’s problems will be fixed in a short time as Musk is personally driving these efforts. He is acutely aware that he cannot afford to have Tesla’s marketplace image destroyed any more than it already is by these quality shortcomings. However, to put things in perspective, Ford went through a much more disastrous launch of its new 2020 Explorer in terms of quality and design problems. Then, of course, there is the ongoing case of VW and its problems with their new ID.3 where VW sits paralyzed because they cannot get their software to work properly and safely. Their ID.3s can’t even be released to dealers, much less the public! In addition, VW had to freeze deliveries of its Golf 8 for over a month in May of this year because they couldn’t make their emergency eCall system work. It took them over a month to come up with a software fix. Since VW can’t perform over-the-air (OTA) software updates — only Tesla can at this point – over 15,000 Golf 8s will have to be returned by customers to their dealers for a dealer installed software upgrade.
The overwhelming message from the great majority of Tesla’s Model Y owners is that they absolutely LOVE their Model Y – its size, its performance, the value it delivers for the price, its styling, etc. The road test reviews of the Model Y continue to be raves as I have cited in an earlier blog. One Model Y owner who has owned every other Tesla model except the Roadster says his Model Y is notable for its refinement – – the ultimate Tesla so far. And the competition continues to push out their EV development and production schedules. As usual with Tesla, they just can’t produce batteries and cars fast enough. More battery innovation and Tesla plants coming! And…..better quality coming.
**** Green license plates and privileges
As the world moves inexorably toward renewable energy and battery-powered electric vehicles, many countries and cities such as London and Seattle are starting to declare either completely traffic-free zones – pedestrians and some delivery vehicles only – or to forbid any ICE-powered passenger vehicles either completely or on some rotating schedule. In parallel with these efforts is an effort by many environmentally enlightened governments to make people more aware of the benefits of electric vehicles and of their increasing numbers on their country’s highways.
There is a growing movement toward identifying electric vehicles with a green license plate or a plate perhaps of another design with a green stripe on it. The UK, for instance will introduce this change this coming Fall. Note that there is no global standardization on any particular shade of green yet. Nonetheless, the green license plates make it easy for traffic enforcement officials to identify traffic policy violators. Some cities are even providing cheaper parking rates for vehicles with green license plates.
In a recent Fully Charged YouTube video from Shanghai, Elliott Richards pointed out that in Shanghai an owner of an ICE-powered vehicle has to pay some 10,000 British pound equivalent (~$12,400) above and beyond that for an EV to get a license plate to drive it in Shanghai. In addition, in sixteen of China’s major cities, people with ICE-powered cars can only drive in those cities every other day, while EV owners can drive every day. As a result commuters with ICE-powered cars have to take a train every other day. More green license plates convey the message to ICE vehicle owners that there may be something to those EVs after all!
Some countries such as China and Germany and Norway have national green energy laws designed to bolster the adoption of renewable energy and battery-powered electric vehicles. The EU has tough new limits with penalties arriving soon that apply to the production of CO2-emitting ICE-powered vehicles. Wouldn’t such policies be a great thing for the US to develop and implement – a national and progressive mandate to move the nation toward a clean energy goal. Furthermore, each state could be required, for instance, to have at least 25% of their EV license plates’ surfaces colored some readily identifiable shade of green. Maybe someday……………..
Image courtesy of Pixabay
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