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.
Looks like it...the Tesla “Model E” is coming after the “Gigafactory” is online, starting at about $32K?
I’ve read varying price estimates, but yes, you’re correct.
It will be interesting to see if it works.(business plan)
Ooooh the green California company funded by tax payer dollars isn’t going to help Jerry out???
and the real world driving experience has shown battery drops of 50 %
Why do you immediately start playing the class warfare card, comparing the price of a luxury car to a house? Do you complain about Ferrari? Why do you question a manufacturer’s decision to expand domestic production capacity to meet demand by saying their product costs too much?
It’s a business decision. Let Elon Musk invest his money how he chooses and
suffer the consequences up or down.
FU. I question everything.
And I question you. So it’s a big happy circle of questioning.
They make a good car. Picks up fast, good performance & prices are not nearly as bad as you’d think for what you get.
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/2013-model-s-price-increase
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?
There are many other cars that cost as much or more and other people besides liberals buy those.
Thank you. I live in NM, which is in the running and I know that our state could definitely use the jobs and the money that the factory will bring.
Its a good car. I would buy it if I had the money. I will wait for the $50k car version in 3-4+ years
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