“Dark Factories” — Chinese Automakers Living Tesla’s Dream

You might recall that Tesla CEO Elon Musk was super eager to almost completely automate Tesla factories back when Tesla launched the Model 3. The attempt didn’t go well, with one problem after another delaying mass production of the Model 3. Finally, when Tesla was on the brink of bankruptcy, they got the Model 3 production line into high-volume production by un-automating much of the line and having humans do the work again. Naturally, Tesla has incorporated more automation as it’s been able to, but the company is still far from a full automated factory.

However … Chinese automakers are getting into that territory. The Wall Street Journal recently created the following segment on these “dark factories,” factories so heavily automated that you could basically turn the lights off there while they continue to produce cars.

“In our welding workshop, there are more than 800 robots working simultaneously,” Zeekr vice president Zhao Chunlin states. “Here we can achieve almost complete lights-out production.” Zeekr, notably, is just 4 years old (founded in 2021). The company can already produce up to around 300,000 vehicles a year.

Overall, industrial robots have now been deployed in massive volumes in China, much more than anywhere else.

Welp, we can see clearly there who is leading in this segment of industry.