Fifty years at Fremont From Chevys to Toyotas to Teslas

摘要

The factory in Fremont, California, where the Tesla Model S is built, has always been cutting-edge, with operations continually tinged by government involvement. Constructed near San Francisco Bay's backwaters in 1962, the "four-in-one" Fremont Assembly Plant represented General Motors' greatest effort to avoid monopoly prosecution. If GM made Chevrolets alongside Buicks, Oldsmobiles, and Pontiacs, how could the Justice Department carry out its threat to spin off Chevy as a separate company? Two years after job one, GM head Frederic Donner came to Fremont, announcing a $2 billion worldwide manufacturing expansion. Governor Pat Brown also attended and delivered "quite a political talk and tossed out figures that were a great deal bigger," Chevy chief Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen wrote.