Dive Brief:

• Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas comprise the short list for where electric-car maker Tesla and its battery-making partners will construct a battery factory estimated to cost $5 billion.
• The Dallas Morning News reported who's on the list, while Tesla said it hopes to select a site and start construction before the year is out.
• The car-maker says it wants to build a 10 million-square-foot "gigafactory" that will produce more lithium-ion batteries in 2020 than were made worldwide last year.

Dive Insight:

There is no word yet on how many construction jobs would be involved or if Tesla has talked with any firms about building yet. The manufacturing is expected to mean about 6,500 jobs. The factory is based on Tesla's plans to be making 500,000 cars annually by 2020.