The fight for Tesla’s Gigafactory is over as Austin, Texas has won with its incentives and culture. On May 9 Elon Musk tweeted he was moving its’ future HQ and programs to Texas and according to Electrek, Tesla bought land in Austin to build the Gigafactory back in June. Travis County also voted to give the electric car company a minimum of $14.7 million in tax breaks. There was never any doubt Tesla was going to pick the Live Music Capital of the World.
The Gigafactory’s focus is to build Tesla’s Y sport vehicles and Cybertrucks. The Gigafactory’s are not a new idea to Tesla. According to Tesla, they already have two: one in Nevada and one in New York. The development of these Gigafactories could give us insight on how the new may operate. The Gigafactory in Nevada was built in phases so Tesla could begin production in the finished section while building the rest of the factory. The currently the structure is 1.9million square feet. In New York the Tesla Gigafactory 2 focus on renewable energy such as solar panels and roofs. The Tesla Gigafactory 2 is 1.2 million square feet according to Tesla.
The main hope is that Tesla will bring jobs to Austin. Those who favored giving Tesla tax incentives expressed wanting the factory to bring jobs and a better income. The Gigafactory 2 has created 800 jobs and has an agreement with New York to create 5,000 clean energy jobs over the next 10 years. At the Tesla Factory in California, “Tesla employs about 10,000 people at its only U.S. car plant today,” according to CNBC.
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Tesla acquires $5 million worth of land outside Austin to build new factory