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Nevada Construction Project Could Be Tesla/Panasonic Gigafactory

Posted by timothy on from the speculation-in-the-hills dept.

cartechboy (2660665) writes "Earlier in the week we heard that Tesla and Panasonic had reached an agreement to build the gigafactory together, and today that became official. Now it seems that things are farther along than anyone thought. In fact, construction of the plant might already be secretly underway in Nevada. This is of course interesting as Tesla hasn't officially announced where the gigafactory will be built. Something called Project Tiger is currently underway east of Reno, and there's a lot of construction workers, heavy equipment, and a heavily guarded fenced barrier around the site. The volume of dirt being moved is 140,000 cubic yards, which matches the gigafactory dimensions given earlier this year by Tesla. Is it possible that Tesla's actually building the gigafactory before even announcing its location? It seems so, yes."

15 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Doesn't surprise me by corychristison · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This does not surprise me at all.

    Elon Musk doesn't eff around. When he says he's going to do something, he does it.

    1. Re:Doesn't surprise me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I was out near there last weekend. It's a massive project. The locals "know" it's the Gigafactory. Shhh, don't tell anyone!

    2. Re:Doesn't surprise me by michelcolman · · Score: 2

      Well, at least it's one of them. I read they were already going to break ground in multiple locations while waiting for the final decision and approval. So this doesn't mean that the actual factory will be built there. Quite a bold trade-off, actually, wasting some money by starting to build in several places that may end up not being used, just to avoid having to wait for politicians to make up their minds. Elon doesn't like to waste time.

      And who knows, those locations may end up housing gigafactories as well, just at a later time.

  2. And it's already closed by patlabor · · Score: 5, Informative

    As reported from the same news site the following day:

    http://transportevolved.com/20...

    1. Re:And it's already closed by timeOday · · Score: 4, Informative
      Does nobody remember this headline from a few months ago? Tesla could start on Gigafactory in 2 states, then cut 1:

      "We are going to proceed with at least two locations in parallel, just in case one of them encounters some issues after breaking ground," Musk said. He said Panasonic was likely to be Tesla's partner in battery production.

      The fact that construction started and then stopped makes it sound more like this is that - who else would do such a thing?

  3. Headline trifecta by timeOday · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I was going to write something snarky about the silliness of getting excited about this one factory, of all things. But it really does hit all the right points, doesn't it: (1) the manufacturing industry in the US, (2) the geopolitics of our oil addiction and resulting involvement in the middle east, and (3) environmental harm from fossil fuels.

    Morgan Stanley is excited about the potential use of gigafactory batteries for home energy storage and grid independence, and thinks they might make more on that than on cars. (I would have thought good old lead acid car batteries were cheaper for this?)

    1. Re:Headline trifecta by mean+pun · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I have long suspected that Elon Musk is trying to provoke other companies into competing with him, exactly because he thinks that what he is doing is important beyond just making some money.

    2. Re:Headline trifecta by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Also, competition stabilizes the market by allowing your competitors to market the need (i.e. the Tesla is a novelty at best, not a serious product; when Chevrolet and Honda stop dicking around with their novelty cars and start telling us all how much we need electric cars, the Tesla suddenly becomes a serious product).

      --
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    3. Re:Headline trifecta by halltk1983 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You can't use car batteries in your home. They make toxic fumes. You'd have to use marine-quality sealed batteries. And at the scale for your home, you're talking real money, usually around $5000-7500 in just batteries. They're heavy, bulky and take up a lot of room. Just think of putting 20-30 car batteries in your home. Plus you'll need to replace all of them every 3 years or so. If they can make a battery pack for $10,000 that's a fifth the size, lasts 10-15 years, and comes warrantied for use in specifically that method... that's a really big win.

      --
      Watch for Penguins, they eat Apples and throw rocks at Windows.
    4. Re:Headline trifecta by rahvin112 · · Score: 2

      Not a serious product?

      He's test running all the manufacturing technology for an entirely new product category. Tesla scares the bejesus out of the car companies because he could very well come in from the side and own the entire industry because he's already patented all the technology needed to actually build these cars. Why do you think every time there is an incident with a Tesla car it makes the national news? You don't honestly believe that's just a coincidence do you?

      You can't engineer a massive toolchain change like this overnight, the electric car is a completely different animal and requires totally different assembly lines and engineering into how to build them the cheapest. The Model S is test running these assembly line issues, the Telsa Roadster was the demonstration platform. You don't build 25K cars a year as a novelty. To put this in perspective the worldwide sales for many of the luxury German cars are in the same number of cars sold (from 8K to about 30K is a typical high end luxury car).

    5. Re:Headline trifecta by mean+pun · · Score: 2

      Tesla scares the bejesus out of the car companies because he could very well come in from the side and own the entire industry because he's already patented all the technology needed to actually build these cars.

      So what does Telsa do? It starts a patent pool http://www.teslamotors.com/cn/.... To me it's another sign Elon Musk is not only motivated by the money (or simply is willing to take a more long-term view than mainstream industry).

  4. If they're smart, they're avoiding NIMBY by magarity · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For every person who wants the factory built nearby for the economic impact, there's a certain ratio of people who don't want it built nearby for whatever reason; traffic, worries about industrial accidents, whatever. So if they're smart, yes, they're already way too far along building to get it stopped by protests.

    1. Re:If they're smart, they're avoiding NIMBY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The Reno Tahoe industrial park is in its own area ( the largest industrial park in the world ), you won't hear about a lot of local residents upset by construction noise / traffic. Its got its own dedicated highway to connect I80 and 395, so truck traffic doesn't clog up the freeways. This is an amazing opportunity, I better clean up my resume.

  5. What about water? by admiralh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Considering the water issues the West is currently having, is it really a good idea to build this in the middle of a desert?

    --
    Hopelessly pedantic since 1963.
    1. Re:What about water? by alva_edison · · Score: 2

      Well, it's north of 36 deg 30', so that makes it North in one sense.
      On the other hand, it's located at about 39 deg 30' N, so it's closer to the southern border of the U.S. (about 34 deg 30') than to the northern border (49 deg).

      --
      He effected a bored affect.