Posted on 04/30/2014 1:35:49 PM PDT by Rio
In an interview, Tesla’s Elon Musk did not quite name a winner, or even a few finalists for the company's proposed battery "gigafactory," but he did announce that he would pick two sites for construction as the company hedges its bets and emphasizes speed.
Musk was quoted by Bloomberg as saying in an interview: “What we’re going to do is move forward with more than one state, at least two, all the way to breaking ground, just in case there’s last-minute issues. The No. 1 thing is we want to minimize the risk timing for the gigafactory to get up and running.”
The plant, which comes with a proposed cost of $5 billion and the possibility to employ as many as 6,500 people, could be located in one of four states: Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico or Texas. The company has not said when they would be willing to announce the two top-runners. Musk also did not explain what would happen to the “losing” site after the company has already broke ground and decided to finish the plant elsewhere.
Either way, Musk doesn’t seem worried. “We will end up spending more money than would otherwise be the case to minimize the timing risk,” he said, also emphasizing that the company may need more than one battery factory within the U.S. Perhaps the company would keep the secondary site available for further expansion in the future.
What Musk did make clear was why California was not an option: “California has a lot of regulatory agencies, and although this will be a very green factory, we can’t have a situation where an enormous amount of data has to be processed by a regulatory agency to find no significant impact and then give us approval to proceed.”
The company plans on rolling out a Model X electric sport-utility vehicle in 2015, followed by a sedan that would sell for about the same price as a BMW 3-Series — essentially, half the base price of a $71,000 Model S.
Stay tuned for the company’s first-quarter results coming on May 7, when there is a good chance it will announce the two finalist sites for the gigafactory.
Where in Texas?
Building a battery factory for electric cars no one wants.
Texas has a problem with Telsa or vice versus. I suspect Telsa maybe trying to get
Texas to revise the franchise laws by offering to build the battery facility in Texas.
It will be large requiring some 1,000 acres and employing some 6,500 direct jobs.
Note this article from back in early Mar.
...Tesla’s ‘Gigafactory’ sets off 4-state bidding war...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/03/02/tesla-gigafactory-four-states/5891757/
Least not in the North, not after this winter. Batteries? When 4 degrees was the high temp? bwahahah.....no thanks.
Well, that fits the definition of 'more than one'...
If they want to build it in Texas I hope they don’t bring their MARXISTS/LIBERAL culture here.
We don’t want it!
The Texas location is rumored to be South-East of Austin, along SH-130
Tesla has sold 25,000 cars, 20,000 of those in the US. The current back order delay is about 40-90 days, depending on the model.
Reviews out of Norway, where it’s been on sale a while, have been positive and there were tests done in winter weather in Minnesota that showed about a 10% drop in range, to about 200 miles. Supposedly the individual control to the four electric motors gives it excellent snow and ice handling.
Sold to rich liberals. What does a Tesla go for? $90k? That is the price of a starter home in many parts of the country.
What’s your point? That a business selling luxury goods is evil?
The longer range cars go for about that. The performance model goes for a bit more. The 65KW version has a max range of 230 miles under ideal conditions. That is 55mph, no wind and no heat. It goes for somewhere around 70K minus the tax rebates. From what I've read, they want to get the price down to ~$35K for a 65KW car.
57K for the base model.
CA....
I would like them to succeed in breaking the antiquated dealership (scam) model.
how much will this cost taxpayers?
No, but I doubt that there is more than a limited market for $90k cars.
I believe they’re doing a business model from luxury, then mid range , then economy.
The US government will blackmail some actual car company to absorb Tesla. Tesla makes almost no money on $90k cars. (Their ‘profit’ comes from ‘Zero Emmisions Vehicle’ credit).
It’s a ‘too Green to fail’ company.
Why do you immediately start calling people anti-capitalist the minute they question the need for mega factory to produce batteries for cars only rich liberals will buy?
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