Tesla has announced plans to expand its presence in Nevada with the construction of two new factories, dedicating $3.6 billion to the project.
The first factory will be dedicated to the production of 4680 cells, with an annual capacity of 100 Gigawatt hours (GWh), enough to power 2 million light duty vehicles per year.
The second factory will be a “high-volume” facility for the production of the company’s electric Semi trucks, with a goal of producing 50,000 per year by 2024. Tesla did not specify when the project will begin or when production will commence at the new facilities.
A rendering of the completed facility has been shared, featuring 4 million square feet of production floor space and a workforce of over 3,000 employees. For comparison, Tesla’s existing Giga Nevada factory covers 5.4 million square feet and has a capacity of 35GWh.
Tesla in a statement on their blog:
“We will be investing over $3.6 billion more to continue growing Gigafactory Nevada, adding 3,000 new team members and two new factories: a 100 GWh 4680 cell factory (with capacity to produce enough batteries for 2 million light duty vehicles annually), as well as our first high-volume Semi factory. Semi is our fully electric combination truck, with 500 miles of range and energy consumption of less than 2 KWh per mile.”
Since 2014, Tesla has invested $6.2 billion in Nevada and constructed a 5.4 million square foot Gigafactory, a crucial component in its goal to speed up the transition to sustainable energy. The construction process alone generated 17,000 local jobs in construction. To date, the team at the Nevada Gigafactory has achieved several milestones including:
- Production of 7.3 billion battery cells (with an annual capacity of 37 GWh or more)
- Manufacture of 1.5 million battery packs
- Assembly of 3.6 million drive units
- Assembly of 1 million energy modules (with a total capacity of 14 GWh or more)
