March 01, 2023

Tesla Factory: Production lines may provide future clues

Guest Post: Kris Kitchen, Founder at Qleon Research

Editor's note: Having also taken a recent Tesla factory tour, I also (now) recall this unusual disconnect between the production lines' announced purpose (from our factory tour guide), and, the shareholder's letter. It could be nothing more than conjecture, but, it's an interesting inconsistency to keep an eye on... kudos to Kris for noticing this and extrapolating a hypothetical possibility that would (albeit a big leap of faith) be quite intriguing.

I went on a tour of the Tesla Motors Factory before it closed and discovered three amazing things*.

1. They had two production lines setup. We were told the second line was for the X. That was believable, until Friday when Tesla Motors published their shareholder letter highlighting that the X/S share the same line. This is possible due to the robotics having modular tool heads that are changed on the fly. This allows them to switch tool heads to work on the model X or S on as needed. Robots do robot things.

2. They have a bottleneck in production. Its the time it takes for paint to dry. Yes they are cranking out vehicles that fast. This was not a problem I expected, but its very curable.

III. Knowing the X/S are sharing the same production line, we know the second production line was not for the Model X. We know the Tesla Factory is on lock-down. The Model III might be closer than most can imagine. Keep an eye out for Model III "MuleS" [as Tesla already mentioned the Model III could be revealed as soon as 1Q 2016].

If you read between the lines you see interesting things... check out "Act 3" in the video below...