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A tent is a tent is a tent —

Tesla CEO: New “tent” assembly line is “way better” than conventional factory

"Not sure we actually need a building. This tent is pretty sweet."

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The view of the new Tesla Sprung tent, shot from the Warm Springs BART station.
Enlarge / The view of the new Tesla Sprung tent, shot from the Warm Springs BART station.
Cyrus Farivar

Further Reading

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FREMONT, Calif.—Tesla’s new tented facility isn’t just a new temporary "assembly line" but is seemingly the first phase of an entirely new building, dubbed "Factory 2.0."

On June 16, CEO Elon Musk publicly announced a "new general assembly line" made with "minimal resources." However, a January 2018 geotechnical investigation report newly on file with the city building permit office notes that Tesla has plans to build a 500,000 square foot "multi story building north of the existing North Paint Building."

The tent is easily visible from the nearby Warm Springs BART station platform. When Ars visited on Monday afternoon, there appeared to be cranes and forklifts moving around the site. We could not easily see inside the long white temporary structure, but there did not appear to be any newly completed vehicles rolling off the lines in the adjacent parking lot.

Still, one automotive expert that Ars spoke with said that a new temporary manufacturing facility on the same site as conventional automotive factories was unprecedented in the industry. Dave Sullivan, an analyst with Auto Pacific, told Ars that he wondered what was wrong with Tesla’s existing facilities, if Musk decided the company needed more capacity. "It’s almost a sign of desperation," he said. "It’s a sprint to be profitable in the third quarter."

Earlier this year, Musk promised the company would be in the black in the third and fourth quarters of 2018.

Patented membrane structure

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On Monday afternoon, Ars was able to read and take notes from the cache of city documents and blueprints, but the Fremont building clerk did not permit us to take pictures of the files themselves, citing copyright protections. (We are currently exploring whether a fair use exception to federal copyright law would allow us to copy and publish the relevant portions.)

According to these files, each tent is 53-feet-high by 150-feet-long—there seem to be several connected in a long line, mounted with aluminum framing. They are manufactured by a company called Sprung, whose website notes that it is not a tent but rather a "patented membrane structure."

For now, the city of Fremont has provisionally approved the not-quite-a-tent project for six months, but no formal building inspections have been scheduled. That approval can be extended for an additional six months.

Journalist Edward Niedermeyer first noted the Fremont building permits on Twitter early Monday.

Tesla is still mandated to submit numerous other materials before the building project can substantially move forward, including "drawings; calculations for electrical; plumbing; and mechanical systems," along with ducts, fans, sprinkler pipes, and more.

We asked Tesla’s communications team a few questions regarding this facility, but they did not respond. Musk, however, on Twitter answered with great enthusiasm about the quickly built structure, noting that a new building was "impossible" and that the "Tesla team kfa!!", which we assume means "kicks fucking ass!"

He added that this new facility was "better" than Tesla’s conventional assembly lines.

Amazingly, he seemed to be open to inviting journalists for a tour.

He did not respond late Monday evening, however, to our tweet as to whether the proposed 500,000-square-foot project would continue or simply be superseded by the tents.

Cyrus Farivar Cyrus is a former Senior Tech Policy Reporter at Ars Technica, and is also a radio producer and author. His latest book, Habeas Data, about the legal cases over the last 50 years that have had an outsized impact on surveillance and privacy law in America, is out now from Melville House. He is based in Oakland, California.

Channel Ars Technica

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