Alabama produces a million cars a year, in factories that are actually high-tech unlike Tesla’s. You think they are clamoring to bring in an automaker struggling to produce a handful of cars with double the industry injury rate?

> actually high-tech unlike Tesla’s

citation needed.

Having toured the Tesla plant a few months after touring BMW in Munich, they're worlds apart. I also toured the Fremont plant back in the NUMMI days.

That said, I don't think it's necessarily a huge strike against Tesla; they're at a different scale and at a different stage in the life of the company.

That's pretty fascinating; I'd love to hear more about your various plant tours. Roughly when did you visit BMW and Tesla? Also comparing it to pre-2010 would be interesting. Thanks!

It's just been far too long for me to remember NUMMI that well, but as far as I remember, it was a pretty automated plant. At Tesla, I saw tons of forklifts being driven around manually, occasionally bumping into things, one with a broken piece of pallet stuck under a wheel, people hand-polishing parts, etc. Workers with boomboxes setup in their desk area on the factory floor, fun stuff like that. I don't begrudge them this, as they have tons of space and are building a car company from scratch; it won't be as automated on day or week or even decade 1 as an existing established manufacturer. But when you compare to BMW, where virtually every operation is highly automated, it's quite a change.

Of course, there's also the matter of what the manufacturer is willing to show you (perhaps we didn't visit the forklift floor at BMW!), and also BMW is highly space constrained building cars right in the heart of Munich.

From the video: "This is the first time that carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) has been used in automotive volume production. The body structure of the BMW i3 consists entirely of this extremely lightweight and durable material, allowing the extra weight of the batteries for the electric drive system to be cancelled out."

That's cool stuff, thank you!

In a word, Yes. The median salary in Alabama is $41,657, these would be high paying jobs relatively speaking.

The only upside is their stated unemployment rate is sitting around 3.5%.

Would they be? Wouldn't Tesla just pay market rates in Alabama for factory work?

Existing, Alabama automotive manufacturing jobs are fairly high paying, so I assume Tesla would be forced to offer similar compensation.

Why not? Alabama isn’t exactly a worker friendly state.

Because being the low-regulation option worked out well for Arizona and Uber...?

Well, likely better than it would have in CA. Back on topic, Mazda, Toyota have plants there, they have the workforce and friendlier reg., which is a plus if you're a MFG.

There a lot more than you would think down here: Honda, Mercedes, Kia, Toyota, Mazda all have plants and many of their suppliers are also in state.