Tesla’s official announcement to build what is now known as Gigafactory Mexico was light on details, but now we are starting to learn more, thanks to local reports.
After months of rumors, Tesla finally announced Gigafactory Mexico during its Investor Day last week.
CEO Elon Musk himself admitted that it was the biggest “news” of the event, but it was extremely light on details.
Tesla basically only said that the factory would be built just outside of Monterrey, Nuevo León, and that it will build electric cars based on the automaker’s new vehicle platform.
When Tesla builds a factory anywhere, even near a large city like Monterrey, it is going to have a big local impact, and obviously, locals want to know more.
Now Samuel García, Nuevo León’s governor, has started to release more details about the project.
The governor confirmed that Tesla secured a substantial piece of land spanning 4,200 acres. That’s about twice the size of the land Tesla has secured to build Gigafactory Texas and all adjoining projects, like its cathode material factory.
He also confirmed that Tesla plans to spend about $5 billion to build the factory, which is in line with the planned capital expenditure at other gigafactories. It’s important to note that this is generally over years and several phases of construction, with other phases coming after the start of production in order to support the investment.
Finally, García said that Tesla plans to employ 7,000 people at Gigafactory Mexico directly. This is on par or lower than at other Tesla gigafactories. It could create tens of thousands more jobs indirectly as suppliers move to the region or ramp up production as Tesla already has several suppliers in Nuevo León.
Tom Zhu, Tesla’s head of automotive and the person in charge of gigafactories, added that his team plans to build the factory at a record pace like Gigafactory Shanghai, which went from breaking ground to production in about nine months.
García confirmed that Tesla told him it plans to start producing cars there next year.
Electrek’s Take
It’s an exciting project. I assume that Tesla has negotiated with the government to be able to fly through the regulatory process and to break ground and go into production as soon as possible.
Like any latest Tesla factory, it is the most exciting since the company learns from project to project and can apply all that new knowledge.
This one is particularly exciting because Tesla is taking everything from Gigafactory Shanghai, Berlin, and Texas, and it is building specifically for the new generation platform.
It could become what Elon has previously referred to as the “alien dreadnought.”