When work began on the Tesla Gigafactory in January, the Sparks, Nev., facility was proposed to total 10 million sf. The new plan makes the original vision almost cutesy.
Treehugger reports that Tesla Motors purchased an additional 1,200 acres next to the Gigafactory and is looking to buy an additional 350 acres.
If Tesla continues to make the plant larger, it will go from four blocks to seven blocks and could make the Gigafactory between 17.5 million and 24 million sf. At the high end of that estimate, the Gigafactory would be the world's largest building based on footprint.
At an initial cost of $5 billion, the Gigafactory's goal is to make 50 gigawatt-hours of lithium-ion batteries, or as many as 500,000 batteries, for electric cars by 2020. Tesla is building the plant to provide batteries for the Model 3 car, which will be in production in late 2017 or early 2018. A few other models, such as Tesla’s Model S and Model X SUV, will also have batteries produced there.
Tesla received the land for free from Nevada last September and also was granted $1.3 billion in tax breaks. The first construction phase of the factory—a 900,000-sf facility—is nearly completed and is on track to start equipment installation later this year and battery production in 2016.
Related Stories
| Aug 14, 2013
Green Building Report [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Building Design+Construction's rankings of the nation's largest green design and construction firms.
| Jul 29, 2013
2013 Giants 300 Report
The editors of Building Design+Construction magazine present the findings of the annual Giants 300 Report, which ranks the leading firms in the AEC industry.
| Jul 19, 2013
Renovation, adaptive reuse stay strong, providing fertile ground for growth [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Increasingly, owners recognize that existing buildings represent a considerable resource in embodied energy, which can often be leveraged for lower front-end costs and a faster turnaround than new construction.
| Jul 18, 2013
Top Local Government Sector Construction Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Turner, Clark Group, PCL top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest local government sector contractor and construction management firms in the U.S.
| Jul 18, 2013
Top Local Government Sector Engineering Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
STV, URS, AECOM top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest local government sector engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the U.S.
| Jul 18, 2013
Top Local Government Sector Architecture Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Stantec, HOK, IBI Group top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest local government sector architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Jul 18, 2013
Top State Government Sector Construction Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
PCL, Clark Group, Turner top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest state government sector contractor and construction management firms in the U.S.
| Jul 18, 2013
Top State Government Sector Engineering Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Jacobs, AECOM, URS top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest state government sector engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the U.S.
| Jul 18, 2013
Top State Government Sector Architecture Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Stantec, Perkins+Will, HNTB top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest state government sector architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Jul 18, 2013
Top Federal Government Sector Construction Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Clark Group, PCL, Hensel Phelps top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest federal government sector contractor and construction management firms in the U.S.