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
| Nov 23, 2010
Honeywell's School Energy and Environment Survey: 68% of districts delayed or eliminated improvements because of economy
Results of Honeywell's second annual “School Energy and Environment Survey” reveal that almost 90% of school leaders see a direct link between the quality and performance of school facilities, and student achievement. However, districts face several obstacles when it comes to keeping their buildings up to date and well maintained. For example, 68% of school districts have either delayed or eliminated building improvements in response to the economic downturn.
| Nov 16, 2010
Brazil Olympics spurring green construction
Brazil's green building industry will expand in the coming years, spurred by construction of low-impact venues being built for the 2016 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee requires arenas built for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro meet international standards for low-carbon emissions and energy efficiency. This has boosted local interest in developing real estate with lower environmental impact than existing buildings. The timing couldn’t be better: the Brazilian government is just beginning its long-term infrastructure expansion program.
| Nov 16, 2010
Green building market grows 50% in two years; Green Outlook 2011 report
The U.S. green building market is up 50% from 2008 to 2010—from $42 billion to $55 billion-$71 billion, according to McGraw-Hill Construction's Green Outlook 2011: Green Trends Driving Growth report. Today, a third of all new nonresidential construction is green; in five years, nonresidential green building activity is expected to triple, representing $120 billion to $145 billion in new construction.
| Nov 16, 2010
Calculating office building performance? Yep, there’s an app for that
123 Zero build is a free tool for calculating the performance of a market-ready carbon-neutral office building design. The app estimates the discounted payback for constructing a zero emissions office building in any U.S. location, including the investment needed for photovoltaics to offset annual carbon emissions, payback calculations, estimated first costs for a highly energy efficient building, photovoltaic costs, discount rates, and user-specified fuel escalation rates.
| Nov 16, 2010
Where can your firm beat the recession? Try any of these 10 places
Wondering where condos and rental apartments will be needed? Where companies are looking to rent office space? Where people will need hotel rooms, retail stores, and restaurants? Newsweek compiled a list of the 10 American cities best situated for economic recovery. The cities fall into three basic groups: Texas, the New Silicon Valleys, and the Heartland Honeys. Welcome to the recovery.
| Nov 16, 2010
Landscape architecture challenges Andrés Duany’s Congress for New Urbanism
Andrés Duany, founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, adopted the ideas, vision, and values of the early 20th Century landscape architects/planners John Nolen and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., to launch a movement that led to more than 300 new towns, regional plans, and community revitalization project commissions for his firm. However, now that there’s a societal buyer’s remorse about New Urbanism, Duany is coming up against a movement that sees landscape architecture—not architecture—as the design medium more capable of organizing the city and enhancing the urban experience.
| Nov 10, 2010
$700 million plan to restore the National Mall
The National Mall—known as America’s front yard—is being targeted for a massive rehab and restoration that could cost as much as $700 million (it’s estimated that the Mall has $400 million in deferred maintenance alone). A few of the proposed projects: refurbishing the Grant Memorial, replacing the Capitol Reflecting Pool with a smaller pool or fountain, reconstructing the Constitution Gardens lake and constructing a multipurpose visitor center, and replacing the Sylvan Theater near the Washington Monument with a new multipurpose facility.
| Nov 9, 2010
Just how green is that college campus?
The College Sustainability Report Card 2011 evaluated colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada with the 300 largest endowments—plus 22 others that asked to be included in the GreenReportCard.org study—on nine categories, including climate change, energy use, green building, and investment priorities. More than half (56%) earned a B or better, but 6% got a D. Can you guess which is the greenest of these: UC San Diego, Dickinson College, University of Calgary, and Dartmouth? Hint: The Red Devil has turned green.
