The Disappointing Truth About Giga Mexico
Summary
TLDRTesla's proposed Gigafactory in Mexico, initially announced with much fanfare in 2023, has hit a standstill. The factory, meant to be Tesla's largest construction project, was expected to revolutionize car manufacturing with a new 'unboxed' process. However, by mid-2024, there were no visible signs of construction, leading to Elon Musk putting the project 'on pause'. Factors like potential tariffs, water scarcity, and political uncertainties might have contributed to this decision, sparking debates on Tesla's strategic direction and the feasibility of the Giga Mexico project.
Takeaways
- 🚧 Tesla's Gigafactory in Mexico, initially announced with great fanfare, has not yet materialized and may never be built.
- 🌎 The proposed Gigafactory was to be Tesla's largest construction project, with expectations of being twice the size of their Austin plant and tripling vehicle output.
- ⏱️ Elon Musk announced the Gigafactory in March 2023, with an ambitious timeline of 12 to 15 months for completion, but by June 2024, the project was 'on pause'.
- 💸 Cost savings were a significant factor in choosing Mexico, with lower labor and energy costs compared to the US and Europe.
- 🏭 The Mexican state of Nuevo León was an attractive location due to its established industrial base, supportive infrastructure, and local talent pool.
- 🤝 The governor of Nuevo León, Samuel Garcia, is a notable Elon Musk fan and has shown strong support for Tesla, even providing an express lane for Tesla components at the border.
- 🏜️ The chosen site for the Gigafactory presented geographical and environmental challenges, including the need for extensive earthworks and water scarcity.
- 💧 Water usage was a concern, but Tesla planned to use recycled wastewater, minimizing the impact on local resources.
- 🛣️ The project's pause was attributed to political uncertainties, particularly potential tariffs on vehicles produced in Mexico by the Trump administration.
- 🔄 Tesla's focus may be shifting from traditional car manufacturing to AI and robotics, suggesting a strategic pivot that could affect the Gigafactory plans.
Q & A
What was the original plan for Tesla's Gigafactory in Mexico?
-The original plan was for Tesla to build their next Gigafactory in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, which was pitched as the company's largest construction project to date, with the potential to be double the size of their Austin plant and triple the vehicle output.
Why did Elon Musk announce the Gigafactory in Mexico?
-Elon Musk announced the Gigafactory in Mexico on March 1st, 2023, as an opportunity for Tesla to make another giant leap forward in production capabilities, with the promise of building the factory in just 12 to 15 months.
What was the expected timeline for the construction of Giga Mexico?
-The construction of Giga Mexico was expected to be completed in just 12 to 15 months from the announcement date, which would have been significantly faster than the construction times for Giga Berlin and Giga Texas.
Why did Elon Musk put Giga Mexico on pause in June 2024?
-Elon Musk put Giga Mexico on pause due to the uncertainty surrounding political decisions, particularly the potential for heavy tariffs on vehicles produced in Mexico by Donald Trump, which could impact the economic viability of the project.
What are the economic advantages of building a factory in Mexico according to the script?
-The economic advantages of building in Mexico include lower labor costs, cheaper utilities such as electricity, and the potential for significant savings on industrial energy costs, which can be as low as 4 cents per kilowatt hour compared to higher rates in the US and Europe.
How does the industrial environment in Nuevo Leon support the establishment of Giga Mexico?
-Nuevo Leon has a well-established industrial environment with a concentration of supporting industries, a network of local suppliers, and a strong auto part supplier sector. It is also home to top universities and technical schools, providing local engineering talent.
What is the significance of the governor of Nuevo Leon's support for Tesla?
-The governor of Nuevo Leon, Samuel Garcia, is a significant supporter of Tesla, having given the company an express lane at the border crossing and showing personal enthusiasm for the brand. This support could facilitate smoother operations and regulatory processes for Tesla.
What are the challenges related to water availability for Giga Mexico?
-The region around Monterrey has limited water resources, with the metropolitan area relying on reservoirs and occasional tropical storms for fresh water. The semi-arid climate and past experiences of water scarcity pose challenges for the water-intensive manufacturing processes of a Gigafactory.
How does Tesla plan to address the water usage needs for Giga Mexico?
-Tesla plans to use recycled wastewater for their industrial needs at Giga Mexico, sourcing it directly from the nearby wastewater treatment plant, with the potential need to expand the plant's capacity to meet Tesla's long-term water requirements.
What is the current status of the Giga Mexico project as of the script's information?
-As of the information provided in the script, there has been little to no progress made on the Giga Mexico site, with Elon Musk stating the project is on pause and no significant construction activities observed, raising questions about the project's future.
Outlines
🏭 The Uncertain Future of Giga Mexico
The first paragraph discusses the complications surrounding Tesla's proposed Gigafactory in Mexico. Initially announced as a major expansion for Tesla, the factory was touted to be the largest construction project in the company's history, with expectations to be operational within 12 to 15 months. However, 15 months after the announcement, there has been little progress, leading to Elon Musk putting the project on hold. The paragraph also touches on the potential reasons for choosing Mexico, including lower costs and the presence of an established industrial base. Additionally, it highlights the governor of Nuevo Leon's enthusiasm for Tesla and the potential benefits of the factory for the region.
🌍 Geographic and Environmental Challenges of Giga Mexico
The second paragraph delves into the geographical and environmental challenges that Tesla might face with the Giga Mexico project. It mentions the vast land purchased by Tesla for the factory, which is nearly double the size of their Austin property. The terrain is described as a valley between mountain ranges with significant slopes, necessitating a substantial earth leveling project. The region's climate is semi-arid with limited water resources, which could pose a challenge for the factory's operation. The paragraph also discusses the water scarcity issues faced by the region and how Tesla plans to address them by using recycled wastewater for industrial needs. However, it points out that the wastewater treatment plant is far from the build site, requiring a pipeline and potentially an expansion of the plant's capacity.
🚫 The Pause on Giga Mexico: Political and Strategic Shifts
The third paragraph addresses the pause on the Giga Mexico project, with Elon Musk citing potential political changes and tariffs as reasons for the delay. It questions the sincerity of Tesla's commitment to the Mexico project, given the lack of visible progress on the ground. The paragraph also speculates on Tesla's strategic shift towards AI and robotics, suggesting that the company might be pivoting away from its traditional car manufacturing focus. It ends with a cautionary note about taking announcements from companies and politicians with a grain of salt, emphasizing the importance of seeing tangible results before believing in ambitious projects.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Giga Mexico
💡Elon Musk
💡Manufacturing Process
💡Nuevo Leon
💡Water Usage
💡Politics
💡Tariffs
💡Recycled Wastewater
💡Industrial Base
💡Sustainable Manufacturing
💡Unbox Production Line
Highlights
Tesla's plan to build a Gigafactory in Mexico has been put on hold, with no clear signs of progress.
The Gigafactory in Mexico was initially announced by Elon Musk on March 1st, 2023, as a major expansion for Tesla.
Giga Mexico was proposed to be the largest construction project in Tesla's history, with expectations to be operational within 12 to 15 months.
In June 2024, Elon Musk confirmed that the Giga Mexico project has been paused, which was a significant setback from initial expectations.
Mexico was chosen for the Gigafactory due to lower costs, including labor and utilities like electricity.
The Mexican state of Nuevo Leon offers a favorable environment for industry with a strong supporting infrastructure.
Governor Samuel Garcia of Nuevo Leon is a notable Tesla enthusiast, which was seen as a positive factor for the Gigafactory's location.
The Gigafactory site in Nuevo Leon is a large plot of land with significant geographical challenges, including the need for extensive earth leveling.
Water scarcity is a concern in the region, with the local water supply being a critical factor for the Gigafactory's operation.
Tesla planned to use recycled wastewater for its industrial needs at Giga Mexico, aiming for the lowest water usage in the automotive industry.
The lack of visible construction at the Giga Mexico site raises questions about Tesla's commitment to the project.
Elon Musk suggested that political factors, including potential tariffs on vehicles produced in Mexico, contributed to the pause of the Giga Mexico project.
The transcript suggests that Tesla's focus may be shifting from car production to AI and robotics, impacting the Giga Mexico plans.
The announcement of Giga Mexico might have been premature, as there is little evidence of substantial work being done on the project.
Tesla is considering redirecting efforts meant for Giga Mexico to its existing Gigafactory in Texas, adapting to new strategic directions.
The narrative concludes with a reminder to take announcements from corporations with caution, as plans can change rapidly.
Transcripts
something has gone wrong with Tesla's
new Giga Factory in Mexico or more
specifically we should say their plan to
build a factory in Mexico that's the
problem really there is no Giga Mexico
not yet but maybe not ever the truth is
that there's a lot more to this story
than just building a factory or not
building a factory Giga Mexico is the
story of Tesla's past present and future
all wrapped into one the truth can be
funny at times but it can also just be
straight up disappointing let's begin
with the promise of Giga Mexico this was
no small thing the factory was
originally pitched as Tesla's
opportunity for another giant leap
forward on March 1st 2023 Elon Musk
announced to the world that Tesla would
build their next gigafactory in the
Mexican state of noo Leon it would be
the company's largest construction
project to date double the size of their
Austin plant and triple the vehicle
output at the time it was said that Giga
Mexico would be built in just 12 to 15
months only slightly more time than it
had taken the company to get their
Shanghai China production up and running
significantly faster than Giga Berlin
and even Giga Texas clearly Tesla had
mastered the art of the gigafactory by
now and it would be full steam ahead
from here on out but in June 2024 almost
exactly 15 months after that
announcement musk was questioned about
why there had still been little to no
sign of any progress being made at
Tesla's Factory site in noo Leon and
Elon replied that Giga Mexico has been
put on pause this marked a pretty solid
blow to many expectations about the
future of Tesla that had been solidified
by Elon and his crew just one year
before Mexico was pitched as the
birthplace of Tesla's Next Generation
vehicle the much anticipated affordable
compact car and even though it was
unsaid at the time just by association
that would link the company's upcoming
robotaxi vehicle to the Mexico plant as
well these next Generation platforms
would be constructed on a revolutionary
new unboxed manufacturing process one
that would drastically reduce the time
cost and floor space involved in
building a new car a kind of parallel
manufacturing philosophy that would Mark
the biggest single change to Automotive
production lines since the days of Henry
Ford the hype was real but as the weeks
and months rolled on we started to get
the inclination that the factory itself
might be a little less than real is it
possible that Giga Mexico failed because
Tesla chose the wrong location depends
who you ask a lot of people would say
that building anywhere outside of the
USA was a grave mistake but there are
perfectly logical reasons for choosing
Mexico as Tesla's Next Step money is an
obvious one it's cheaper to do anything
in Mexico than it is in the US not only
does Mexican labor tend to come at a
lower cost you can also get some pretty
amazing deals on some other very
important utilities such as electricity
the price of energy for industrial use
in noo Leon can be as little as 4 cents
per kilowatt hour average cost in the US
would be more like 16 cents per kilowatt
hour and in a European nation like
Germany you're looking at over 40 cents
depending on the exchange rates
speaking of Germany there's been a long
documented and still ongoing battle
between Tesla and various levels of
government bureaucracy in play around
Giga Berlin Elon Musk has said that this
red tape is what led to significant
delays in getting that factory up and
running building in Texas proved to be a
lot easier Tesla got a much bigger
factory up and running in a shorter time
frame but nothing compares to how fast
Tesla has been able to move in China
where there are pretty much zero
obstacles to Industry noo Leon presents
a very similar opportunity the state's
capital city of Monteray has already
been well established as a home of
Industry a factory town a place where
companies from all over the world have
set up shop to manufacture everything
from Electronics to automobiles to
airplanes to food and Beverages and
that's given rise to supporting
industries that produce raw materials
like steel and oil and a network of
local suppliers that feed the major
manufacturers Auto Part suppliers are
already a huge economic sector in noo
Leon many of them are already working
for Tesla and shipping their products
North into the US there's even an
express lane at the NOA Leon border
crossing specifically for trucks
carrying Tesla components this
concentration of industry has led to an
exceptional private education system in
the area home to many of the top
universities and technical schools in
all of Mexico meaning that there is
already local engineering talent in the
area so good that Tesla has already been
doing regular recruiting trips down to
Monteray to try and draw Talent up to
the US now here's where things actually
get funny as if all that wasn't enough
of a reason for Tesla to be in Mexico
the governor of noo Leon 36-year-old
Samuel Garcia is a hardcore Elon Musk
Fanboy I mean he gave Tesla their own
express lane at the border crossing
that's not exactly standard practice but
Samuel and his family have also been
known to wear Tesla merch on social
media they've both joked about naming
their children after Elon Musk Samuel
bought his wife a Tesla Model X for
Valentine's Day and it's been said that
Governor Garcia was the first cyber
truck owner in the entire nation of
Mexico the first legal one at least so
if anything it's a bit disappointing
that Tesla has not shown the same
enthusiasm for noo Leon as it has shown
for them it really does appear to be a
perfect fit except picture this your
deal is nearly closed but there's one
last hurdle the security review we've
all been there endless back and forth
between you your security team and the
customer causing deals to stall out it's
frustrating right but what if you could
speed that process up that's where vanta
comes in with V's questionnaire
automation goto Market teams can
complete Security reviews up to five
times faster helping you close deals in
record time no more waiting around and
no more missed opportunities over 8,000
global companies including big names
like Zoom info smart recruiters and noou
Trust vanta to streamline their security
questionnaires and keep deals moving
ready to see it in action check out V's
self-guided product tour no sign up
required just click the link Down Below
in the description and experience the
future of Security reviews today let's
talk about the location that Tesla chose
for gig of Mexico the company purchased
a gigantic plot of land it's nearly
double the size of their Austin property
at 4200 Acres it's basically a valy
between two mountain ranges with a major
highway running through the center Tesla
has only ever released this one rendered
image but thanks to drone pilot Adrien
CG who's local to the area we can get a
little bit more perspective on the
landscape when you look at Tesla's
rendering it would appear that the
factory is set on a nice flat Plateau
but looking at ad images you start to
realize that there is no flat land in
this Valley everything slopes up from
the roadway so there is going to have to
be a significant Earth leveling project
by Tesla that is going to involve
cutting deep into the surface which in
this area is pretty much solid rock the
climate around monter is probably best
described as semi arid it's not a dried
up desert but there is definitely no
abundance of water either the region
typically gets around 30 days of rain
per year the mon metropolitan area gets
its fresh water from the three
reservoirs fed by the Rio sanan River
and rainwater from the occasional
tropical storm there's also a limited
amount of groundwater that can be pumped
up from underground aquafi water can be
a precious commodity in this region in
March 2022 just one year prior to the
Giga meico announcement the Taps of
montere ran dry caused by a period of
severe drought by the summer people were
fighting over buckets of water ration
out by the local government and during
this time period the people of montere
took notice that even while their water
was restricted the nearby hakin and
Coca-Cola factories never stopped
bottling drinks many of them got pretty
upset about that and rightfully so it's
a pretty familiar situation to what
Tesla has already dealt with over in
Germany and the company has been able to
learn a lot from that experience the
water usage at Giga Berlin is well under
the Factory's approved limit and it's
almost en en irely recycled water that's
used for the industrial process the
biggest freshwater use by far at the
gigafactory is the bathrooms and Tesla
has already made a similar arrangement
for water use in Mexico the factory will
only use recycled Wastewater for their
industrial needs and water usage at Giga
xico would be the lowest of any
Automotive Factory in the world per
vehicle the problem there still comes
when we factor in the volume of said
Vehicles Tesla wants to hit 3 million
cars built gig of Mexico so even if
they're using less water per car they
are building a hell of a lot more cars
than any other Factory on the planet now
there is a solution Tesla would obtain
all of their water directly from the
nooon wastewater treatment plant so the
gigafactory would have no effect on the
area's reservoirs or aquifi the
complication being that the water
treatment plant is 18 km away from the
Tesla build site meaning that there
needs to be a pipeline built connecting
the two even then it's likely that the
treatment plant will not be able to
supply enough water for Tesla's needs in
the long term meaning that the total
capacity of water treatment will then
need to be expanded in order to keep up
so there are pros and cons to any
decision and in the case of Giga meico
it would appear as though the positives
outweigh the negatives and yet there is
no Giga meico Elon Musk has made some
effort to offer up an explanation saying
on Tesla's June earnings C call we are
currently on pause on Giga Mexico I
think we need to just see where things
stand after the election Trump has said
that he will put heavy tariffs on
vehicles produced in Mexico so it
doesn't make sense to invest a lot in
Mexico if that is going to be the case
so we will kind of need to see how
things play out politically now politics
is a factor for sure but for Elon to say
that Donald Trump is the primary reason
for Tesla not following through with the
Mexico plan feels a bit off it's not
like we didn't know full well in Mar
2023 that Donald Trump would be a front
runner in the presidential race and I'm
not American but I don't find it the
least bit surprising that Trump would
announce a policy to tax imports from
Mexico it seems like something that a
forward-thinking company would be more
prepared for not that Tesla was ever
really serious about Giga Mexico anyway
let's be real here for a second if
anyone at Tesla was being sincere on
March 1st 2023 when they said that Giga
Mexico was coming that it was important
to the future of the company that it
would be built in as little as 12 months
that on March 2nd 2023 Tesla Crews would
have started clearing and leveling the
ground they would have started building
an 18 km long waterpipe things would
have happened looking at adrianne's most
recent drone flyover of the Tesla
property in Monterey the only
discernable construction to be found is
a few partially casted pillars for a
highway overpass and one one poorly laid
sheet of asphalt with some junk on it me
and the boys here at the studio could
have done more in 18 months than the
mighty Tesla I don't think it's too
weird to call that a bit disappointing
you can't say you're putting something
on pause that you never started in the
first place I'm left wondering why Tesla
even announced this Mexico project so
publicly and with so much enthusiasm it
feels like something that should have
stayed internal until they had a real
plan or maybe leaked out in a vague post
from Elon Musk it's almost like Mexico
was the last gasp of Tesla fighting to
remain a car company an idea built on
the mentality that to grow the company
Tesla needs to build more cars and then
Elon came back from his working holiday
at Twitter and said no we're going to
grow the company by making Ai and robots
then he fired everyone who disagreed
with him spent all of the gig of Mexico
money on supercomputer chips and now
we're here wherever that is
it's definitely a Tesla that's in
transition from the old ways into
something new something that's not quite
fully formed yet for the short term at
least Elon is pretty convinced that
everything Tesla would have done at Giga
Mexico can actually just be done at
gigga Texas instead the unbox production
line the robo taxi and maybe just forget
about that whole 25k Tesla thing it's
not canceled we're just not doing it
anymore that's different robots though
anyway maybe just just a periodic
reminder that when things sound too good
to be true they probably are don't
believe it until you see it and don't
take anything said by rich people or
politicians too seriously
浏览更多相关视频
The Real Reason Elon Musk is Building The DOJO Supercomputer
Elon Musk: 'No Choice' but to Shut Down X San Francisco Office
Tesla Drops Bombshell Out Of Nowhere
México anuncia Nuevo Tren de pasajeros unirá estás ciudades: QRO, CDMX, GDL, SLP, GTO Y AGS
⚠️ ¿Por qué TESLA está COLAPSANDO en bolsa? ⚠️ ¿Es una OPORTUNIDAD?
⚡🚗 Unstoppable: Tesla's Dominance Decoded 🚀
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)