Tesla Motors opens European Factory to increase production

This weekend in Tilburg Netherlands, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the opening of Tesla Motors first European factory. The nearly 50,000-square meter Tilburg Factory in the Netherlands is actually an expansion from its previous assembly facility in Tilburg. Musk has been traveling through Europe this past week with visits to Germany, Denmark, and Belgium. 

Source: Tesla Motors (Facebook)

According to Auto Evolution, "it was built using old factory parts from the company’s main factory in Fremont, California. The plant is set to make 450 Tesla Model S cars per week, with a capacity for about 1,000 a week. The plant in Tilburg is not entirely new, more likely a reconfiguration and upgrade if you wish, considering it was previously used to reassemble cars made in California. The premium EV maker said the new Tesla Tilburg factory is here to bring their most popular model faster to 'our growing family in Europe.’ Elon Musk said that the plant has 'a lot of room for growth and expansion,' adding that the company was likely to look for new sites in Europe, starting next year.”

According to Tesla’s Facebook page, this first-look video (see above) showcases Tilburg's awe-inspiring “750m of vibration and harshness in Model S on Europe's first indoor production test track” inside their new factory. More footage from the Tilburg factory filmed yesterday is also featured below…

Source: Reinders Family

Elon Musk speaks out on the VW Scandal

Earlier this week Musk made a statement about the Volkswagen scandal, "What Volkswagen is really showing is that we've reached the limit of what's possible with diesel and gasoline. And so the time has come to move to a new generation of technology." At the Tilburg factory opening, talking with press, he expanded on these initial comments, according to Yahoo News, he called for fossil fuel-powered cars "to be tested at random," as German giant Volkswagen's worldwide pollution cheating scandal continues to reverberate around the globe. "The obvious move is to pick cars at random and then test the emission in transit," said Musk. 

Musk said he believed the Volkswagen "was under a lot of pressure to make improvements" in emission levels "and ran into a physical wall… after that, trickery is the only option," Musk said. He continued by saying that all car manufacturers will eventually move to electrical vehicles, adding that he believed Volkswagen too should go "full tilt for sustainable-powered vehicles.""Clearly emissions-testing needs to be more rigorous.”