Thursday, February 27, 2014

Tesla Eyes Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico For $5 Billion Gigafactory

Electric car maker Tesla Motors raised some eyebrows Wednesday, announcing that it plans to build a $5 billion dollar, "Gigafactory" to produce batteries and other components for its electric cars--and has already narrowed down possible sites for the gigantic factory to four states, including Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico, in addition to Texas. The selection of a local site for the factory would be a massive injection of jobs into the region, with Tesla expecting it would employ around 6,500 employees once the factory is built. Tesla said it expects to power the new factory with renewable energy sources like solar and wind, and ship batteries from its factory to its final assembly plant in California. Tesla said it is in the midst of final site selection. Tesla said the new facotry is required to hit volume production of a mass market, electric vehicle that it is in the process of designing.