Dive Brief:
- Work at the Tesla Motors' Gigafactory 1 site in Reno, NV, has now moved to the interior of the $5 billion lithium-ion battery plant project, with $10 million in architectural interiors and data center construction underway, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.
- Tesla, acting as its own contractor, applied for more than 20 building permits totaling more than $45 million in the last four months, with the most expensive at $12.92 million for mezzanine steel and concrete work. The pilot plant will make up about a quarter of the final size of the overall facility when completed, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the company has received its temporary certificate of occupancy.
- Tesla said it plans to start producing batteries by February 2016, which will aid the company's ultimate goal of producing 500,000 electric vehicles per year, as well as producing residential and commercial storage batteries.
Dive Insight:
The recent flurry of construction work on the gigafactory interior means that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is that much closer to his goal of seeing his gigafactory become the world’s largest lithium-ion battery plant. That plant, when finished, could become the world’s largest building — in terms of footprint — by the time it is finished
Musk captured the attention of the off-the-grid community in May when he introduced his PowerWall and PowerPack battery products — home and commercial batteries that would allow consumers to charge them using their own electricity, and then use the charged batteries during blackouts or to mitigate subsequent use of electricity.
Tesla has hired more than 740 construction workers since last fall to work on the gigafactory. Tesla has said the factory eventually will employ 9,000 people, and Bloomberg reported that some of them have started relocating to Reno and buying homes there. The median home price in May jumped 19% from a year earlier. Real estate prices for commercial and rental properties in Reno have also surged. Over 20 years, the factory will spur approximately $97 billion in economic activity, Bloomberg estimated.
