Tesla has officially announced its anticipated new battery and semi factories in northern Nevada, along with a $3.6 billion investment to bring them to fruition. But are these actually new factories or just the completion of the Gigafactory Nevada in its originally planned size?
Earlier today we reported on the Nevada governor hinting at plans for Tesla’s new factory, which are expected to be officially unveiled today. Tesla has now released a blog post detailing its progress on its previous investments in Nevada and the plans for this new investment.
Tesla says it has already spent $6.2 billion in Nevada and hired 11,000 people while creating 17,000 local construction jobs by building its Gigafactory there, and that the factory has produced:
- 7.3 billion battery cells (37 GWh+ annually)
- 1.5 million battery packs
- 3.6 million drive units
- 1 million energy modules (total 14 GWh+)
Those numbers are higher than Tesla’s original plan from 2014, which called for spending $3.5 billion on a factory to produce 35 GWh of batteries annually, which would then employ 6,500 people.
Since then, the EV market has grown rapidly, meaning 35 GWh is still not enough to meet global demand for Tesla’s EVs.
Today Tesla said:
We will invest over $3.6 billion more to continue the growth of Gigafactory Nevada, adding 3,000 new team members and two new factories: a 100 GWh 4680 cell factory (with the capacity to annually produce enough batteries for 2 million to produce light commercial vehicles), as well as our first large-volume semi-factory.
Tesla’s announcement is unclear as to whether those factories will still be on the same lot as its current Gigafactory, which is still about 60% complete judging by renderings compared to the building’s current state.
Judging by the new plaster, these new factories could be in the same building. Compared to the existing building which has an L shape and the original and new renderings of the building, filling in this L shape would complete the building to look more like the renderings:
Original rendering
Current status
New rendering January 2023
The announcement mentions that part of the $3.6 billion will be spent on further expanding the Gigafactory, but also on building two new factories. Previously, Electrek reported that Tesla is building a production line for the Tesla Semi in a new building near Gigafactory Nevada, so we’re not sure if it will change its plans and bring all production under one roof or continue to expand the new building nearby, or maybe both – maybe the 4680 format cells will be built in the main building and semi in the annex.
This announcement comes a day ahead of Tesla’s earnings report, which is certainly an interesting timing. Tesla set a delivery record of 405,000 vehicles delivered in Q4 and 1.3 million in 2022, although the Q4 figure was below expectations. Towards the end of the quarter, Tesla began offering rebates and recently slashed prices, signaling that demand needed some stimulus after more than a year of significant price hikes while demand for electric vehicles soared.
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