On Tuesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk along with the Governor of Nevada Joe Lombardo jointly announced the next phase of expansion plans for Tesla’s Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada.
Earlier on Monday, Gov. Lombardo had hinted in his 1st State of the State Address that he and Musk will be putting out plans for a new $3.5 Billion Tesla factory in northern Nevada.
Elon Musk disclosed the details of this massive investment plan in a presentation held in the presence of a limited number of Tesla engineers and employees from the automaker’s Nevada Gigafactory. Tesla later on published a video of this event on YouTube which you can watch below.
Governor Joe Lombardo had quoted a figure of $3.5 billion worth of investment in his address but Elon Musk and Tesla added a bump of $100M to it quoting $3.6 billion across all official channels.
During the presentation, Elon Musk said that the $3.6 billion investment figure is still a conservative estimate and the final number will exceed it significantly. “I think we’ll end up investing over $4 billion,” he said.
Tesla will diversify this new tranche of Giga Nevada investment into two major areas:
- Gradually scaling the 4680 cell production to 100 GWh
- Developing the first high-volume Tesla Semi truck production factory
Addressing his Giga Nevada team at the start of his keynote, Elon Musk uttered the following words:
We’ve made incredible progroess at Tesla in building this factory and achieving tremendous output of cells, drive units, power electronics, and stationary battery packs — but there’s more.
This factory has made massive effect on transitioning the world to sustainable energy and it’s something you should be incredibly proud of and I am incredibly proud of you guys for doing it — so yeah — [applause].
Elon Musk at Giga Nevada, 24th January 2023.
Giga Nevada Phase 2
Elon Musk referred to this expansion as Phase 2 of Giga Nevada and he even hinted that there will even be a Phase 3 and further development happening in the future as well.
“I should tell you that what I’m announcing today is actually not the end of it, it’s just really Phase 2,” Elon Musk said.
Tesla owns 3,200 acres (~139.4 million sq ft) of land to build Giga Nevada, of which only a small portion is currently utilized. In the Phase 2 expansion, Tesla will utilize 4M sq ft of new space for the exponential scaling of 4680 cells and Tesla Semi production.
The development of new manufacturing facilities at Giga Nevada will also create employment opportunities in the state. According to Tesla and Elon Musk, this will result in more than 3,000 direct new jobs and more in the future.
Elon Musk’s presentation included the above slide showing the current footprint of Giga Nevada (in purple) and the positioning of the new 4680 cell factory (green) and Tesla Semi manufacturing area (blue).
Musk also said that the 100 GWh capacity building of the 4680 cell production is a short-term goal. In the long run, Tesla aims to scale up this capacity to 500 Gigawatt-hours. Musk even said that this capacity will increase to even 1,000, 2,000, and 3,000 GWh in the future.
Producing 100 Gigawatt-hours of new 4680 cells will give Tesla the ability to produce around 1.5 million additional Model 3 and Model Y EVs (calculated by using a unit of 70 kWh battery pack).
Elon Musk said that the 4680 cells produced at Giga Nevada will also be used in Tesla’s stationary storage products such as Powerwalls and Megapacks.
Tesla started limited production of its Semi trucks at the pilot production plant at Giga Nevada last year. The first production Tesla Semis were even handed over to PepsiCo on Dec 1st, 2022.
Elon Musk estimates that Tesla will achieve volume production of its class-8 electric Semi trucks sometime next year (2024).
Governor Joe Lombardo also addressed the Tesla team present at Giga Nevada on this occasion. He ensured that the process of this new expansion of the Gigafactory Nevada will advance smoothly.
Gov. Lombardo even brought the Director of Transportation onto the stage who is in charge of the I-80 highway that is used to transport the 11,000 Giga Nevada employees from home to work and back. He said that I-80 is going to be improved to ensure further safety.
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