Hello?
Tesla Bod - Hello? This is Tesla Motors. Am I speaking to Factory Zinc? I mean Factories Inc?
Factories Inc. - Yes. What can we do you for today?
TB - Well we want a factory, to make batteries, like, if you see what I mean...for cars.
FI - Aha. What kind of factory were you thinking of?
TB - Well, a biggish one, like, big, you know, kind of thing.
FI - Can you be more specific? Do you want a maxi factory, a mega factory, a giga factory? Or a monster factory?
TB - Er...I don't know, tell me how much do they cost?
FI - The maxi is $ 50 million. The Mega is $ 200 million. The giga is $1 billion and the monster is $10 billion.
TB - We were thinking more around the lines of $ 12.5 million.
FI - Oh I see. Well, actually, we've got a special promotion on giga factories running next week. If you can do without a few unnecessary bits and bobs, we can bring the price right down.
TB - What, you mean like no car park, no lobby, that kind of thing? It would be difficult for us to cope without these things.
FI - On the contrary, this would be a US factory. There's got to be a car park and a lobby. But do you really need a production line?
TB - Er...I thought that's the whole point of a factory.
FI - It used to be, but these days many of our clients are opting for new-style PR factories. You can do away with the production lines, the machines, the safety equipment, the big shed that normally covers it all, and of course the pesky blue-collar workers. All you need is a nice car park, some landscaping and a lobby with a few offices behind. You can import the goods from China. We can set it all up for you for $ 12 million. That means you get your giga factory AND you have some change to buy yourself some cake and eat it.
TB - That's amazing. We'll go for that!