EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: jancumps on September 25, 2015, 10:05:45 am
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On the news today, it's announced that Tesla is thinking about a plant in Belgium.
free_electron, welcome back home!
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This makes sense, if you're building an evil empire then you don't concentrate it all in one place or that 007 guy will come and blow it up (and rescue the girl). Either that or they want to sell Tesla cars in Europe without paying import duties.
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If it goes to the French-speaking side he won't be a happy camper! Antwerp and the port makes more sense though.
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If it goes to the French-speaking side he won't be a happy camper! Antwerp and the port makes more sense though.
Why? What kind of a comment is that?
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On the news today, it's announced that Tesla is thinking about a plant in Belgium.
free_electron, welcome back home!
I'm not sure he will see fitting wheels to a car instead of doing PCB layouts as a promotion >:D
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http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/Economy/1.2451474 (http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/Economy/1.2451474)
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Unlikely to built a car plant in Belgium. Tesla opened one in Tilburg two years ago. Maybe a battery factory later.
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/tesla-motors-opens-assembly-plant-tilburg-netherlands (http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/tesla-motors-opens-assembly-plant-tilburg-netherlands)
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Unlikely to built a car plant in Belgium. Tesla opened one in Tilburg two years ago. Maybe a battery factory later.
And today Tesla opened a second plant in Tilburg (NL). So what is the chance of opening a factory in Belgium?
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There's a difference between a factory and a finishing line.
A car factory starts with rolls of sheet-metal, cans of paint and pellets of plastic... at the other side cars exit under their own power.
Tilburg is a finishing line. Complete cars minus the european charger plug and with the battery removed for transport are completed for the european market.
Of course it would be fantastic if Belgium landed the factory. After all it was a Belgian that invented the electric car ( La Jamais Contente) and broke two land speed records with it ! Having a harbor like Antwerp is a big plus !
But realistically speaking , my hopes are dim. The government will have to do a bit of work ... they'll probably muck (m=f) it up with all their little rules and nitpicking. Belgium is not a very innovation friendly country. Three governments , huge differences between north and south. And a metric ton of idiotic rules. You can get a fine for eating a sandwich while walking around in the city center (Mechelen : GAS boete omdat ze een broodje aten op het plein voor de kathedraal)) ... You can get a fine for peeing on a tree along a highway. (if you gotta go, you gotta go , what are you going to do ? pee in your car ? Not with that battery pack underneath me .. :) )
In the US at least every store is mandated to have public restrooms. Good luck finding one of those in Belgium. There are some , but then you have to pay to pee .. absurd. And the unions will probably have a field day as well. You can only this, can only that ... It's very frustrating when you are in the middle of a creative process to have to stop mid sentence because your work time for the day is 'up'. Freeze what you are doing and go home.
Imagine you are allowed only 60 minutes a day for your hobby. No matter what you are doing. stop and drop everything. Time up, go watch tv now. ( cause by now everybody stopped working , including the people in stores, the banks, the post offices ). After having spent an hour in traffic jams in the morning you get to enjoy two hours of traffic misery in the evening. When it is Saturday you get to enjoy more traffic misery because this is the day where EVERYBODY goes to the store , so not only do you queue on the road , you also queue at the checkout counter. And then on Sunday comes the big black hole. (nearly) everything is closed and you land in a big void.
No thank you. i'm not coming back. I'm too fond of living my life my way , on my time schedule. I get up when i want, eat when i want , go to the store when i want (they are open 24/h a day). i get mail even on saturdays. Digikey and Mouser are here. Tons of opportunities to get used test equipment. 364 1/2 days of sun a year. I live life on my clock.
Even after 10 years every day still feels like being on vacation in a nice place.
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Of course it would be fantastic if Belgium landed the factory. After all it was a Belgian that invented the electric car
Gustave Trouvé was French and invented the electric car (and first actual car as we think of them tbh, if a three wheeler) 19 years before Jenatzy broke that record.