Tesla Agrees To Buy Germany's Grohmann Engineering

Tesla Motors Co. said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire privately-held German company Grohmann Engineering for an undisclosed sum. The electric car maker said the Pruem, Germany based engineering company will become Tesla Grohmann Automation, and said it expects to add more than 1,000 skilled jobs in Germany in the next two years. The company specializes in highly automated manufacturing and will design and make several critical elements of Tesla's automated manufacturing systems. "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," the company said in a statement. Shares were indicating slightly higher premarket, but are down 19.5% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 4%.