Work has begun on Tesla Motors’ “gigafactory,” a $5 billion project on 980 acres in Sparks, Nev., that, when at full capacity in 2020, could annually produce 50 gigawatt-hours of lithium-ion batteries, or enough for 500,000 of Tesla’s electric cars.
Sparks, a suburb of Reno, Nev., was the winner in the gigafactory sweepstakes whose finalists were Fort Worth, Austin, Phoenix, and Albuquerque. Last September, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval signed a bill granting $1.3 billion in tax breaks to Tesla—including giving it the land for free—to build this massive plant, which at an estimated 5.5 million sf would be equal to 174 football fields.
Panasonic, which owns a portion of Tesla, last October said it would invest 10 billion Yen—or the equivalent of $92 million—into this project. The Wall Street Journal quoted Panasonic’s CEO, Kazuhiro Tsuga, who promised “installments of similar amounts” into this plant in the future. Currently, Panasonic supplies batteries for Tesla’s cars from its plants in Asia.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, says he expects Panasonic to contribute between 30% and 40% of the plant’s total cost. Tesla Motors will ante up half of the cost, and will manage the plant itself.
Tesla is building this plant to provide batteries for its Model 3 car, which is scheduled to go into production in late 2017 or early 2018. The plant would also provide batteries for Tesla’s Model S, and its upcoming Model X SUV. However, when this plant is scheduled to open is uncertain, as different news reports have said the opening could be in late 2016 or sometime in 2017.
The Nevada plant’s construction is projected to create between 20,000 and 22,000 jobs, and 6,500 permanent jobs. Over a 20-year period, the plant is expected to add $100 billion to Nevada’s economy.
Tesla’s goal is to produce batteries that are cheap enough for it to be sell its Model 3s for around $35,000. These batteries would also allow the electric cars to drive up to 200 miles before needing recharging.
However, given that Tesla sold between 33,000 and 35,000 cars globally in 2014, according to the website InsideEVs, its dreams of 500,000 units sales seem quixotic, especially given buyers’ lukewarm reception to all-electric cars so far.
To put this into some perspective, the two best-selling vehicle models in the U.S.—the Ford F-series trucks and Toyota Camry—sold 763,000 and 404,000 units in the U.S., respectively, last year, when a total of 16.5 million autos were purchased by American buyers. Toyota offers a gas-electric hybrid model, one of 47 hybrids from different manufacturers available in the U.S., where hybrids account for 3.2% of all light-vehicle sales.
Plug-in electric car sales in the U.S., on the other hand, rose above the 100,000-unit level for the third consecutive year in 2014, according to the website GreenCarReports.
Tesla doesn’t break out its U.S. sales, but given that its Model S starts at $70,000, one would think its market share is small. Nevertheless, the company is banking on a sizable increase in worldwide demand for electric cars. Last week Musk told CNBC that his company “should be able to produce a few million cars a year by 2025.” Tesla recently upgraded its plant in Fremont, Calif., to be able to produce 100,000 electric cars by the end of 2015.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Biograph Theater
Located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, Victory Gardens Theater Company has welcomed up-and-coming playwrights for 33 years. In 2004, the company expanded its campus with the purchase of the Biograph Theater for its new main stage. Built in 1914, the theater was one of the city's oldest remaining neighborhood movie houses, and it was part of Chicago's gangster lore: in 1934, John Dillin...
| Aug 11, 2010
Special Recognition: Triple Bridge Gateway, Port Authority Bus Terminal New York, N.Y.
Judges saw the Triple Bridge Gateway in Midtown Manhattan as more art installation than building project, but they were impressed at how the illuminated ramps and bridges—14 years in the making—turned an ugly intersection into something beautiful. The three bridges span 9th Avenue at the juncture where vehicles emerge from the Lincoln Tunnel heading to the Port Authority of New Yor...
| Aug 11, 2010
World's tallest all-wood residential structure opens in London
At nine stories, the Stadthaus apartment complex in East London is the world’s tallest residential structure constructed entirely in timber and one of the tallest all-wood buildings on the planet. The tower’s structural system consists of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels pieced together to form load-bearing walls and floors. Even the elevator and stair shafts are constructed of prefabricated CLT.
| Aug 11, 2010
Setting the Green Standard For Community Colleges
“Ohlone College Newark Campus Is the Greenest College in the World!” That bold statement was the official tagline of the festivities surrounding the August 2008 grand opening of Ohlone College's LEED Platinum Newark (Calif.) Center for Health Sciences and Technology. The 130,000-sf, $58 million community college facility stacks up against some of the greenest college buildings in th...
| Aug 11, 2010
School Project Offers Lessons in Construction Realities
Imagine this scenario: You're planning a $32.9 million project involving 112,000 sf of new construction and renovation work, and your job site is an active 32-acre junior-K-to-12 school campus bordered by well-heeled neighbors who are extremely concerned about construction noise and traffic. Add to that the fact that within 30 days of groundbreaking, the general contractor gets canned.
| Aug 11, 2010
CityCenter Takes Experience Design To New Heights
It's early June, in Las Vegas, which means it's very hot, and I am coming to the end of a hardhat tour of the $9.2 billion CityCenter development, a tour that began in the air-conditioned comfort of the project's immense sales center just off the famed Las Vegas Strip and ended on a rooftop overlooking the largest privately funded development in the U.
| Aug 11, 2010
University of Arizona College of Medicine
The hope was that a complete restoration and modernization would bring life back to three neoclassic beauties that formerly served as Phoenix Union High School—but time had not treated them kindly. Built in 1911, one year before Arizona became the country's 48th state, the historic high school buildings endured nearly a century of wear and tear and suffered major water damage and years of...
| Aug 11, 2010
Top of the rock—Observation deck at Rockefeller Center
Opened in 1933, the observation deck at Rockefeller Center was designed to evoke the elegant promenades found on the period's luxury transatlantic liners—only with views of the city's skyline instead of the ocean. In 1986 this cultural landmark was closed to the public and sat unused for almost two decades.
| Aug 11, 2010
200 Fillmore
Built in 1963, the 32,000-sf 200 Fillmore building in Denver housed office and retail in a drab, outdated, and energy-splurging shell—a “style” made doubly disastrous by 200 Fillmore's function as the backdrop for a popular public plaza and outdoor café called “The Beach.
| Aug 11, 2010
Integrated Project Delivery builds a brave, new BIM world
Three-dimensional information, such as that provided by building information modeling, allows all members of the Building Team to visualize the many components of a project and how they work together. BIM and other 3D tools convey the idea and intent of the designer to the entire Building Team and lay the groundwork for integrated project delivery.