Gigafactory Texas | |
---|---|
Built | 2020‒2022 |
Operated | August 2021 |
Location | 13101 Tesla Road Austin, Texas United States |
Coordinates | 30°13′15″N97°37′07″W / 30.220874637587702°N 97.61864963428322°W |
Industry | Automotive |
Products | |
Employees | 20,000 (2023) [1] |
Area | Floor area: 10,000,000 sq ft (930,000 m2) [1] Land: 3.3 sq mi (8.5 km2; 2,100 acres) |
Owner(s) | Tesla, Inc. |
Website | tesla |
Gigafactory Texas (also known as Giga Texas, Giga Austin, or Gigafactory 5) is an automotive manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas built by Tesla, Inc. Construction began in July 2020, [2] limited production of Model Y began before the end of 2021, [3] [4] and initial deliveries of vehicles built at the factory took place at an opening party called “Cyber Rodeo” on April 7, 2022. [5]
The factory produces Model Y cars for the Eastern United States and is also planned to be the main factory for the Cybertruck and the company's next-generation vehicle. [3] [6] [7] [8] It also serves as the site of Tesla's corporate headquarters. [9] Tesla employs over 20,000 people at the factory and expects to eventually have a staff of 60,000 as production ramps up. [1] It is the country's second biggest factory by size as well as the second-largest building by volume in the world after the Boeing Everett Factory. [10]
Tesla had been considering locations across eight states in the central United States during 2019‒2020. [11]
Community groups and government officials in several areas of the US expressed interest in hosting what was expected to be a very large Tesla Gigafactory manufacturing facility. [12] Some expressing interest in facilitating land procurement, getting over the regulatory obstacles, and considering potential tax incentives. [13] Some used social media marketing aiming to reach Elon Musk directly. [14] [15]
By May 2020, a selection process was underway by Tesla. The short list included Austin, Nashville (Tennessee) and Tulsa (Oklahoma). [16] [17] [18] Two locations in the vicinity of Tulsa had been viewed by Tesla by mid-May. [18] The Tulsa campaign was promoted by G. T. Bynum, the mayor of Tulsa. In May 2020 Bynum discussed the suitability of "Green Country" (Northeastern Oklahoma) [18] and distributed a photomontage of the Cybertruck in Tulsa Police Department livery, with a suggestion of local purchasing, if the Gigafactory were to be situated near Tulsa. [19] On May 20, 2020, wrap advertising was applied to the Golden Driller statue located at the Tulsa Expo Center to create a caricature of Elon Musk, with the word "Tulsa" on statue's belt buckle replaced by the "Tesla" name. [20] [21] In July 2020, Tesla selected Austin as the site. [22]
In 2014, Tesla evaluated a 1,500-acre (600 ha; 2 sq mi; 6 km2) manufacturing site on U.S. Route 79 at Frame Switch ( 30°32′N97°30′W / 30.54°N 97.5°W ), located between the towns of Hutto and Taylor, north-east of the Greater Austin center as its next factory. [23] [24] However, Tesla chose to build its first Gigafactory (now named Gigafactory Nevada) near Sparks, Nevada in 2014.
By June 2020, a different location near the Del Valle area of Austin was being considered, a 2,100-acre (850 ha; 3.3 sq mi; 8.5 km2) site bordering Harold Green Road (later renamed Tesla Road) and Texas State Highway 130. [25] On June 16, 2020, the Commissioners' court of Travis County discussed a possible incentives package for Tesla. [26] [27] In July 2020, the Del Valle Independent School District approved a tax incentives package worth $68 million, should the Tesla Gigafactory be built. [25] On July 22, 2020, during Tesla's second quarter 2020 earnings call, the company announced that location had been selected for its fifth Gigafactory. [3]
By the end of July 2020, construction had begun. [2] The Tesla Gigafactory received state tax incentives worth about $50 million through the Texas Tax Code Chapter 313 program. [28] Tesla announced a manufacturing training program in cooperation with Austin Community College District on June 15, 2021. [29] [30] [31] The program was expected to start in August 2021 and the course was to last 14 weeks. [32]
The first fully completed Tesla Model Y rolled off the line at Giga Texas in the last week of August 2021 under trial production. [33] In December 2021, Elon Musk estimated that Giga Texas will require a total investment of at least $10B and may employ as much as 20,000 employees within the company. [34]
In early 2022 Tesla battery suppliers CATL and Panasonic were reportedly scouting sites for battery factories in North America, including Kansas, Oklahoma, Mexico and Canada. [35] [36] Panasonic announced in July 2022 that the company selected in De Soto, Kansas (at the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant) to build a battery factory. Large subsidies and abatements were granted to Panasonic, organized by Governor Laura Kelly.
During the night of January 18/19, 2021, concrete foundations for three Giga Press high-press die-casting machines were poured at the north-east corner Giga Texas factory location. [37] [38]
On January 21, 2021, the first Giga Press components started to arrive on site in crates and shipping containers. [39] [40] On January 22, 2021, the base frame of the first Giga Press was unboxed and craned into position. [41]
Some time in late June 2022, Gigafactory Texas reached a run rate of 1,000 units a week. [42]
On December 15, 2022, Gigafactory Texas reached a run rate of 3,000 units a week. [43]
Elon Reeve Musk is a businessman and investor. He is the founder, chairman, CEO, and CTO of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO, product architect, and former chairman of Tesla, Inc.; owner, executive chairman, and CTO of X Corp.; founder of the Boring Company and xAI; co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI; and president of the Musk Foundation. He is one of the wealthiest people in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$190 billion as of March 2024, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and $195 billion according to Forbes, primarily from his ownership stakes in Tesla and SpaceX.
Franz von Holzhausen is an American vehicle designer. Since 2008, he has been in charge of design at Tesla, Inc. He led design for the Tesla Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Semi, Cybertruck and Tesla Roadster. Prior to Tesla, he worked in design at Mazda, General Motors, and Volkswagen.
Tesla, Inc. is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas, which designs, manufactures and sells electric vehicles, stationary battery energy storage devices from home to grid-scale, solar panels and solar shingles, and related products and services.
Del Valle is an airport-defined edge city of Austin and part of the Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is founded upon the 19th-century Santiago Del Valle leagues, the largest granted land parcel in Travis County.
The Tesla Fremont Factory is an automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, United States, operated by Tesla, Inc. The factory originally opened as General Motors' Fremont Assembly in 1962, and then was operated by New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI), a joint venture of GM and Toyota from 1984. The joint venture ended when GM entered bankruptcy in 2009. In 2010, Toyota agreed to sell the plant to Tesla at a significant discount. The plant is the only production site for the Model S and Model X and also produces the Model 3, and Model Y.
Gigafactory Nevada is a lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle component factory in Storey County, Nevada, United States. The facility, located east of Reno, is owned and operated by Tesla, Inc. The factory supplies battery packs and drivetrain components for the company's electric vehicles, produces the Tesla Powerwall home energy storage device, and assembles the Tesla Semi. It is the largest and the first Tesla Gigafactory in the world. If fully built out, the building will have the largest footprint in the world.
The Tesla Model 3 is a battery electric mid-size sedan with a fastback body style built by Tesla, Inc., introduced in 2017. It is marketed as being more affordable to more people than previous models made by Tesla. The Model 3 was the world's top selling plug-in electric car for three years, from 2018 to 2020, before being knocked from the top spot by the Tesla Model Y, a crossover SUV based on the Model 3 chassis. In June 2021, the Model 3 became the first electric car to pass global sales of 1 million.
The Tesla Powerwall is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery stationary home energy storage product manufactured by Tesla Energy. The Powerwall stores electricity for solar self-consumption, time of use load shifting, and backup power. The Powerwall was introduced in 2015 with limited production. Mass production started in early 2017 at Tesla's Giga Nevada factory. As of May 2021, Tesla had installed 200,000 Powerwalls.
Tesla Energy Operations, Inc. is the clean energy division of Tesla, Inc. that develops, manufactures, sells and installs photovoltaic solar energy generation systems, battery energy storage products and other related products and services to residential, commercial and industrial customers.
The Tesla Powerpack was a rechargeable lithium-ion battery stationary energy storage product, intended for use by businesses or on smaller projects from power utilities. The device was manufactured by Tesla Energy, the clean energy subsidiary of Tesla, Inc. The Powerpack stores electricity for time of use load shifting, backup power, demand response, microgrids, renewable energy integration, frequency regulation, and voltage control. The first prototype Powerpacks were installed in 2012 at the locations of a few industrial customers. After July 22, 2022, the product was no longer listed for sale.
The Tesla Model Y is a battery electric mid-size crossover SUV produced by Tesla, Inc. since 2020. The vehicle was presented in March 2019 as the company's fifth production model since its inception after the Roadster, Model S, Model X and Model 3.
Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg is a manufacturing plant for Tesla, Inc. in the municipality of Grünheide (Mark) in the Brandenburg state of Germany. The campus is located 35 kilometres (20 mi) south-east of central Berlin and some 8 kilometres (5 mi) southeast of the Berlin state boundary at Erkner and Rahnsdorf. Proximity to Berlin Brandenburg Airport was explicitly cited as a factor in choosing the site. It is Tesla's first manufacturing location in Europe.
Gigafactory New York is factory leased by Tesla, Inc. in the Riverbend section of Buffalo, New York. The factory, owned by the State of New York, was built on brownfield land remediated from a former steel mill. Construction of the factory started in 2014 and was completed in 2017. It produces the Tesla Solar Roof and Tesla Superchargers. Additionally, Tesla employs data analysts for its Autopilot software at the site.
Gigafactory Shanghai is an automobile manufacturing plant in Shanghai, China, operated by Tesla, Inc. Construction of the plant began in January 2019, initial production started in October, and the first production vehicles rolled out of the factory in December 2019, less than one year after groundbreaking. The main plant currently manufactures the Model 3 and Model Y. As of July 2023, Tesla says the factory has the capacity to build over 750,000 vehicles per year and is the primary production site for Tesla vehicles exported to regions without a Gigafactory.
The Tesla Cybertruck is a battery electric full-size pickup truck built by Tesla, Inc. since 2023. Introduced as a concept vehicle in November 2019, it features a triangular body design with flat sheet metal panels made of stainless steel.
The Giga Press program is a series of aluminium die casting machines manufactured for Tesla, initially by Idra Group in Italy. Idra presses were the largest high-pressure die casting machines in production as of 2020, with a clamping force of 55,000 to 61,000 kilonewtons. Each machine weighs 410–430 tonnes (900,000–950,000 lb).
Tesla, Inc. has been criticized for its cars, workplace culture, business practices, and occupational safety. Many of the criticisms are also directed toward Elon Musk, the company's CEO and Product Architect. Critics have also accused Tesla of deceptive marketing, unfulfilled promises, and fraud. The company is currently facing criminal and civil investigations into its self-driving claims. Critics have highlighted Tesla's downplaying of issues, and Tesla's alleged retaliation against several whistleblowers.
The Tesla next-generation vehicle is an electric car platform under development by Tesla. The next-generation vehicle will be the third mainstream platform for the company, and it is expected that production volumes will greatly surpass those of the Model 3/Y platform. Although the vehicle has not been given an official name, the moniker Model 2 has been used to refer to the vehicle in the media. The car will be manufactured at Gigafactory Texas, Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, and the planned Gigafactory Mexico.
asked if Tulsa, Oklahoma remains in the mix for a possible Tesla production site, Musk simply said the company continues to consider "several options." … looking for $68 million worth of property tax credits from a Travis County school district. … in the official documents that "eight states" were also under consideration.
Tesla is in talks with Nashville officials to locate a factory there that will produce its all-electric Cybertruck and Model Y crossover
Tesla has picked Austin, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, as finalists for its new U.S. assembly plant … officials visited Tulsa … and were shown two sites. … site selection process is secret, … no final decision has been made. … new factory will be Tesla's biggest so far. … factory to be in the center of the country and closer to East Coast markets.
narrowed it down to two cities to build a new US Gigafactory for Cybertruck production, and they are Austin, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma … Associated Press reported on the finalists … visited Tulsa to view two potential sites for the Gigafactory. … mayor G.T. Bynum said "…can't imagine a better place than Green Country."
Mayor of Tulsa G.T. Bynum has a simple proposition: If Tesla builds its future Cybertruck Gigafactory in the Oklahoma city, he wants Cybertruck police vehicles … tweeted a rendering of a Cybertruck decked out in local police livery, following reports his city is a finalist among Tesla's choices. … added it would "only be right to buy local,"
at the Golden Driller... "Hey Kurt, we have some people who want to wrap the Driller!" That's the phone call Kurt Stenstrom of Meeks Group received over the weekend … "This is the first time the face has ever been wrapped," he said.
… workers were busy adorning the distinctive Tesla "T" on the chest of the iconic Golden Driller at the Tulsa County fairgrounds. The Tesla name also now appears on the belt buckle of the statue. … planning a news conference for
Hutto EDC, with the assistance of the city of Taylor, Hutto ISD , Williamson County and the state of Texas, put together an incentive package worth more than $800 million over 20 years. … cities of Hutto and Taylor had secured more than 1,000 acres of land south of the intersection of Hwy. 79 and FM 3349 to build the factory with rail access nearby. It was believed the factory would have brought approximately 6,500 jobs to the area.
+/- 1,486 acres … Industrial or Corporate headquarters … Access to BNSF and Union Pacific Class 1 railroads
Del Valle Independent School District approved an incentive agreement with Tesla, … build a 4-5 million square-foot electric vehicle … Gigafactory at the intersection of State Highway 130 and Harold Green Road … 2,100 acres, … $68 million — by capping the property value for 10 years. … 5,000 jobs
negotiating possible incentives … Austin American-Statesman reported on … Travis County Commissioners Court is scheduled to discuss terms of the deal on
Item 21 on Travis Commissioners Court agenda calls for the members to "Consider and take appropriate action on a project under Travis County Code Chapter 28." … Chapter 28 of the Travis County Code contains guidelines for economic development incentives. … United Auto Workers, … believes "that item 21 on the agenda is related to Tesla," … "…moratorium on economic incentives. In May, the commissioners lifted the moratorium for two months…" … will be talked about in "executive session," … UAW … sent a letter