Gigafactory 4 blueprints from the town hall in Brandenburg may have hinted that Tesla has developed a solid template for its future factories. Based on the schematics of Tesla’s Phase 1 building for GF4, the EV automaker will construct a building that is very similar to Gigafactory 3’s Phase 1 building in Shanghai.
Tesla enthusiast @gigafactory_4 went to Brandenburg’s town hall to get some more information on Tesla’s new factory in Europe. The Tesla supporter found blueprints which may have revealed that Phase 1 of Gigafactory 4 will be adopting a similar design as Gigafactory 3’s electric car production facility.
@Gigafactory_4 along with fellow enthusiasts @Gf4Tesla and @EmilSenkel have trekked through the forest which will be the next site of Tesla’s factory in Europe. They managed to figure out the general layout of Gigafactory 4 by mapping out the markers placed in the forest for its construction.
Credit: @Gigafactory_4/Twitter
As previously reported by Tesmanian, the layout rendered by the Tesla enthusiasts revealed a similar design to the GA4 tent—the semi-permanent structure the EV carmaker built for the Model 3 assembly line in the early days. GA4’s Phase 1 schematics from Brandenburg’s town hall seem to match the layout the Tesla enthusiasts made based on the markers in the forest.
In the papers for Tesla’s Gigafactory 4, there was also a picture of the Phase 1 building which mimics the first major building in GF3. There seems to be slots at the sides of the factory for delivery trucks to drop off needed materials just like GF3’s Phase 1.
In a different picture, a side profile of the building was also revealed, which showed the name of the company in big letters. Once again, it looked like Tesla’s current production building in Shanghai.
Gigafactory 3 in China is like a more permanent version of Tesla’s GA4 tent. Many TSLA skeptics mocked the car company at the time for building cars in the parking lot of the Fremont factory inside a tent.
However, Tesla was able to figure out a good layout for the Model 3 production line in the GA4 tent. As such, the Model 3 production went by smoother after.
Gigafactory 3 may be the first permanent building the car company has constructed following the GA4 tent’s layout. Tesla China seems to be adapting to Tesla’s manufacturing format quite well. During the Q4 2019 reports, the EV automaker announced that Gigafactory 3 had reached a run rate of 3,000 vehicles a week and already started assemblies of locally-made battery packs.
— Gigafactory4 (@gigafactory_4) January 7, 2020
Gigafactory 4 seems poised to follow in Gigafactory 3’s steps. It doesn’t quite have the same layout of Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 in Nevada. The factory in Nevada is not separated into individual buildings, like the ones that will be built in Gigafactory 4—based on the blueprints.
In comparison, Gigafactory 3’s production line and battery pack/powertrain assembly line are in completely different buildings. Meanwhile, Gigafactory 1’s production line seems to be located in one building altogether.
It is clear that GF3 in Shanghai and GF1 in Nevada have different designs. With Tesla adopting the same layout as GF3 in its Gigafactory 4 construction, the car company seems to have settled on a certain design for its factories. Tesla may keep the GA4 tent design for its future factories. However, the EV car maker is always optimizing and tweaking its technic, so the layout of its factories could change, too.
H/T: @gigafactory_4, @Gf4Tesla, and @EmilSenkel
Featured Image Credit: @gigafactory_4/Twitter
About the Author
Claribelle Deveza
Longtime writer and news/book editor. Writing about Tesla allows me to contribute something good to the world, while doing something I love.
