Tesla warns on challenges of scaling up production

FRANKFURT, Sept 22 (Reuters): Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk warned on Tuesday about the difficulties of speeding up production as an expert cautioned the carmaker's increased reliance on large-scale aluminium parts could bring new manufacturing challenges.

While carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz have said automation has limitations, Musk has pressed on with plans to create a hyper-automated factory, which he refers to as the "alien dreadnought", or "the machine that builds the machine".

"The extreme difficulty of scaling production of new technology is not well understood. It's 1,000 per cent to 10,000 per cent harder than making a few prototypes. The machine that makes the machine is vastly harder than the machine itself," Musk said on Twitter.

Musk's warning comes ahead of a "battery day" later on Tuesday, when Tesla is expected to unveil steps to boost battery production.

For its new Model Y, Tesla plans to replace 70 components glued and riveted into the car's rear underbody with a single module made using the world's biggest aluminium casting machine in its new factory in Brandenburg, near Berlin.

Car bodies have traditionally been made by assembling multiple stamped metal panels, a technique which has helped create crumple zones to absorb energy during a crash, but Musk is charting a new course at the Brandenburg plant.

While casting could reduce the number of assembly steps, larger aluminium parts are more prone to deformation, according to Professor Martin Fehlbier at Kassel University in Germany.