In an attempt to speed up the construction of its new factories, Elon Musk has confirmed that Tesla is now using pre-fabricated building methods. While the automaker has been focused on accelerating the production of its electric vehicles, the company thought it would be wise to look into the acceleration of construction of its new factories, or, “the machine that builds the machine.”
In order to do this the company plans on building new manufacturing facilities and building them quickly. Going from a single company based out of California, Tesla now has three major factories around the world with two more huge factories under construction.
Gigafactory Shanghai for example went from an empty piece of land to a vehicle producing factory in under a year and is currently expanding in preparation for the production of the Model Y. In addition we see Gigafactory Berlin which is expected to feature potentially the world’s most advanced paint shop along side all the manufacturing technology that Tesla is known for.
Tesla started construction of Gigafactory Berlin a few months ago and things are moving quickly regardless of the delays brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. It appears that the company already has walls going up at the site as seen on a new drone video uploaded to YouTube by a user named the_wolfpack_berlin:
CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla is using a “prefabricated construction method” in a comment regarding the progress saying “Giga Berlin will come together at an impossible-seeming speed. The prefabricated construction method in Germany is extremely impressive.”
Prefab construction has seen most of its success in residential construction. It allows for the reduction of time and labor by making parts of a new building offsite at a different factory. In the past few decades prefab construction has gained speed in several types of construction and we will likely continue to see more companies take advantage of this manufacturing method in the future.