Tesla plans to build a new pick-up truck, and an urban bus, and launch a sharing system of selfdriving cars, founder Elon Musk announced. The company now says it will make 500,000 vehicles per year by 2018, two years earlier than scheduled. This location in Nevada has promised the automaker incentives that might worth around $1.3 billion over 20 years, which includes the building of a highway that hurries travel from near Carson City to the industrial park where the factory is located.
Advertisement
Within three or four years, Musk said, he expects 10,000 employees to work at the gigafactory.
One thing often overlooked about Tesla is that it is a US-based company making cars in the U.S. with USA workers.
“Create a smoothly integrated and attractive solar-roof-with-battery product that just works, empowering the individual as their own utility, and then scale that throughout the world”, Musk said.
The roof of the new factory may be covered in solar panels with a solar-panel field nearby to provide additional power to the factory.
For now, Tesla is only assembling battery packs for its home and industrial energy storage products at this factory.
“We think this has been a great decision and has really been to Nevada’s benefit”, Economic Development Director Steve Hill said. “It feels like the wild West”. One gigawatt hour is the equivalent of generating one billion watts for one hour – one million times that of one kilowatt hour. That’s the equivalent to the entire world’s production in 2014.
“Elon Musk has laid out a grandiose plan for the future with no time frames and few specifics, and no mention of how and when Tesla will be profitable”, said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with AutoTrader. In a recent statement the company says in part: “Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. We believe the Tesla Semi will deliver a substantial reduction in the cost of cargo transport, while increasing safety and making it really fun to operate”, Musk wrote.
Corrections & Amplifications: Tesla Motors plans to start battery cell production in late 2016.
There are also competitors who could derail Tesla’s dreams.
The plant’s $5-billion cost is financed through Tesla stock offerings and cash from Panasonic, the Japanese electronics giant, which is dropping $1.6 billion on the project. By 2020, the factory is expected to be producing enough batteries to power 1.2 million Model S cars.
Advertisement
Tesla has argued in the weeks since the crash that Autopilot, when used correctly, is safer than a vehicle operated without any assistance, and stresses that the system’s manual requires an Autopilot user to keep their hands on the wheel at all time.
