Tesla is building a ‘unique new R&D facility’ in Detroit’s backyard
Tesla is reportedly building a new “unique EV research, testing, repair, and maintenance facility” in Detroit’s backyard, but it sounds like it could simply be a collision center.
According to a report in Crain’s Detroit Business journal, Tesla has just received approval from Southfield, a town in the suburbs of Detroit, to build a “unique” new facility:
Southfield officials have signed off on Tesla Inc. opening what is being described as a unique EV research, testing, repair, and maintenance facility.
It’s not clear what makes this new facility unique and a “research and testing” location on top of a facility to perform “repair and maintenance.”
Terry Croad, Southfield’s planning director, said:
I’ve been told (by Tesla representatives) that it’s the first one in Michigan and the next closest one is Chicago,” Croad said. “It’s supposed to be able to handle 60 to 80 customers a week. There’s gonna be a lot of software updates. It’s not going to be your grandfather’s bump shop because of the sophistication of the chips and software. This is unique.
There’s nothing that sounds like that in Chicago, but what Tesla has in Chicago that it doesn’t have anywhere else in the region is a “Tesla Body Shop,” or collision center, where Tesla performs body repairs on its own vehicles.
Electrek looked at Tesla’s job openings in Southfield, and they all appear to be related a collision center:
Without any other details about what would make this location a “unique EV research, testing, repair, and maintenance facility,” it sounds like there might just be some confusion about what would become Tesla’s 18th body shop in the US.
Tesla has reportedly started work on the building at 21375 Telegraph Rd. north of Eight Mile Road. It will be expanding the square footage by 7,000 square feet to create a 34,500-square-foot property.
Michigan, where most of the US’s legacy automakers are located, has not been welcoming to Tesla.
The state has tried to block Tesla’s direct sale model, and it took years before the automaker could build its own service centers in the state.
In 2020, Tesla built its first service location in the state after successfully exploiting a loophole. Now Tesla operates two service centers in Michigan, and it looks like it will add a body shop to the list too.
Tesla officially launched its own body shop program last year after many customers complained of long wait times for even just minor body repairs at third-party shops.
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China just connected its largest single-capacity solar farm built on a former coal mining area, which is in the Gobi Desert, to the grid.
The Mengxi Blue Ocean Photovoltaic Power Station, located in Otog Front Banner, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, came online on November 5. With a massive installed capacity of 3 gigawatts (GW) and over 5.9 million solar panels, the plant will generate around 5.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually – enough to power 2 million households.
This huge project will save about 1.71 million tons of standard coal each year and cut carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 4.7 million tons, which is equivalent to planting 62,700 hectares (around 155,000 acres) of trees.
Built on coal mining subsidence land, Mengxi Blue Ocean is part of China’s national West-East Electricity Transfer Project, which brings investment and development to western China west while supplying the growing need for electricity in the eastern provinces.
The solar farm includes the country’s first large-scale outdoor solar testing base in the Gobi Desert climate, demonstrating the potential for large solar installations in challenging environments.
The power station makes use of new rare earth alloy grounding materials, cutting costs by 40%. It also replaces traditional concrete foundations with steel to minimize impact on the local grassland ecosystem.
Chuang Xihong, deputy director of the Engineering Construction Department of Guodian Power Group, CHN Energy’s parent company, explained that Mengxi Blue Ocean is an agrivoltaic project as well [via PV Tech]:
Fine forage and sand-fixing plants are planted under the PV modules, providing grazing for Australian White Sheep and chickens. A composite ecological development model will be established where PV power generation and breeding will go hand in hand.
Read more: China powers up the world’s largest open-sea offshore solar farm
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