For a massive $700 million expansion of Gigafactory Texas in Austin, Tesla has submitted an application with the Texas state department of licensing.
Already, Gigafactory Texas is a massive manufacturing facility. That becomes evident as you drive it, which takes some time due to its length of almost a mile.
At the factory, Tesla is already producing Model Y vehicles; however, the production lines occupy only a small portion of the enormous facility.
The automaker intends to expand the existing facility to accommodate the production of Cybertrucks as well as future vehicle programs and battery production.
Today, we learn that Tesla filed paperwork with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation yesterday to expand the factory.
For an additional 1.4 million square feet of space, the expansion requires a $717 million construction investment. As is typical of Tesla, the company intends to move quickly, beginning construction as soon as the month’s end.
The following are the four expansion projects, according to the Austin Business Journal:
The largest of the four projects is for Cell 1, a facility with 693,093 square feet. The estimated cost of that project, which is also the most expensive, is $368 million. The project is expected to begin construction on January 23 and be finished on February 12, 2024.
Drive Unit, the project with the next-largest footprint, will be 423,032 square feet. The estimated cost of that project is $85 million. The construction is expected to begin on February 6 and finish on January 15, 2024.
With 321,186 square feet, Cathode would be the third-largest project and the second-most expensive, costing $260 million. The start and end dates for that project are January 30 and December 18. Cell Test Lab, on the other hand, will be the smallest of the four projects, measuring just 2,560 square feet and expected to cost $3.7 million. This makes it slightly larger than the typical Starbucks. The start and end dates for that project are January 30 and August 25.
On the other hand, some of those expansion filings may be additions to existing plans.
Recent drone flyovers of the construction site, for instance, indicate that the Cathode plant is already under construction. “Ground up and complete interior finish out of the [electric vehicle] manufacturing facility” Tesla writes in the filings about the new construction projects.
Tesla Semi, the company’s upcoming vehicles built on the Gen 3 vehicle platform, and Tesla Bot, the company’s humanoid robot, are expected to be built at the Gigafactory Texas location in the future.