Tesla inks deal to buy German manufacturing engineering firm

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Tesla Motors says it has agreed to buy a German engineering company to help automate its electric car manufacturing.

The company is buying buy Grohmann Engineering, which Tesla says is a leader in highly automated manufacturing methods.

Tesla expects to start building the $35,000 Model 3 electric car next year, and it wants to build 500,000 cars per year in two years. More than 300,000 people have put down deposits to reserve a Model 3.

Tesla expects to add more than 1,000 engineering and technician jobs in Germany over the next two years.