Tesla Makes 'First Acquisition Of Significance,' Will Hire Over 1,000 German Engineers

Tesla Motors Inc TSLA has agreed to acquire a Germany-based engineering company called Grohmann Engineering, a world-renowned engineering company and leader in highly automated methods of manufacturing.

Tesla confirmed the acquisition in a blog post and noted its vision of delivering 500,000 cars per year by 2018 requires high-volume factories that can manufacture quality products with economies of scale. To date, the company boosted production at its Fremont Factory by 400 percent in four years and the acquisition will help further accelerate that growth rate.

"At very high production volumes, the factory becomes more of a product than the product itself," Tesla noted.

TechCrunch quoted Tesla CEO Elon Musk as saying that the acquisition marks "our first acquisition of significance in our whole history" as it will deliver the technology and expertise to help the company "build the machines that build the machine."

As part of the acquisition, Tesla now has a base of operation for its Advanced Automation Germany headquarters with other locations to follow. The company will absorb over 1,000 advanced engineering and skilled technician jobs in Germany over the next two years.

In addition, several critical elements of Tesla's automated manufacturing systems will now be designed in Germany.

"Combined with our California and Michigan engineering facilities, as well as other locations to follow, we believe the result will yield exponential improvements in the speed and quality of production, while substantially reducing the capital expenditures required per vehicle," Tesla added.