Tesla Motor Inc is building the biggest factory ever in Story County, Nevada. Its Gigafactory is expected to be as big as 7 “blocks,” according to Story County official Dean Haymore. The term 7 “blocks” doesn’t sound that big, until you consider the Gigafactory which is undergoing construction at the moment as one single block.
According to Haymore’s presentation at Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, Tesla has recently purchased another 1,200 acres of land next to where its Gigafactory is being built. After this recent purchase, the automaker now has land double the amount it used to have before, and that’s not just it, but it plans to acquire another 350 acres of land at the same location.
As reports state, the company initially intended to purchase 10 million square-feet of land for its Gigafactory, but after recent plans of acquisitions, it seems Tesla will end up with more than 24 million square-feet of land, making it the largest factory in the world.
Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has forecasted an EV revolution, and to cope with it he says the company will need to build hundreds of Gigafactories. The Gigafactories will manufacture state of the art EV vehicles like the Tesla Model S.
The American automotive company aims to begin production in its Gigafactory as soon as possible. The company forecasts making 500,000 batteries for electric cars in its Gigafactory by 2020. However, Musk reported to have said that Tesla will expand battery production to maximum levels, because of an impressive response from its latest announcement of stationary energy storage products. Hence, Tesla is expecting a lot in return from the huge investment at its Gigafactory.
Panasonic Corporation (ADR) (TYO:6752), is currently the only partner working along with Tesla for its Gigafactory. But another interesting fact that Haymore shared during his presentation was that another fourteen more companies are expected to join hands with them in the Gigafactory which is great news, especially for Tesla.
“Panasonic is bringing 14 other companies, besides them, over here (Tahoe Reno Industrial Center) to provide for Tesla,” Haymore said.
Tesla initially had plans to bring in a number of suppliers to work together under a single roof in order to lower costs. However, the automaker has not yet announced a single battery cell supplier other than its long time battery supplier, Panasonic. We suggest Tesla may be relying completely on Panasonic to bring in other battery suppliers, and we also hope it works out for them so that we can probably drive better, and own cheaper EVs in the future.
