Entrepreneur Nigel Broomhall Will Pitch To Tesla For Giga Tiwai

Featured image: A graphic illustration of what a Tesla Gigafactory could look like at Tiwai Pt. / Nigel Broomhall

An entrepreneur born on the southern island of New Zealand wants to bring Tesla to Tiwai to build future Gigafactory.

Recently, the New Zealand Aluminium Smelter's (NZAS) announced its intention to close its smelter in Tiwai Point near Invercargill, which was the reason Nigel Broomhall began to consider the possibility of a Tesla plant in Tiwai. This step provides an opportunity for innovation.

Broomhall said he would put together a “coalition of the willing” to offer Tesla a proposal to found a Gigafactory in Tiwai Point if he could get enough public support for his idea. "Selfishly, I'm deeply passionate about electric vehicles and the benefits they bring. Cleaner air, quieter cities, energy independence from foreign fuel imports. I could go on and on," he says. Officials involved in damage control at Tiwai Point were broadly positive about Broomhall's proposal.

Tesla Gigafactory for Southland - let's make it happen. - https://t.co/9gUWnjItmF pic.twitter.com/jUgvEjnjWR

— Nigel Broomhall (@sustaiNZ) July 11, 2020

The entrepreneur thinks that Southland is a great place for the Gigafactory because it has:

• 570MW of 100% renewable electricity
• a commercial deep-water port designed to manage raw materials
• all the electricity transmission hardware to get the energy into the site
• 1,200+ highly-trained manufacturing staff

"Having this amount of renewable electricity available at such low prices is unique in the world. We have 1200-plus skilled people in Southland we could transition, and we have a deep-water port, roll-on, roll-off capability, and many raw materials used to make batteries next door in Australia.

"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity that I believe will attract a top team to pull together a deal."

In 2018, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the company will need 100 Gigafactories in order to ensure the transition of the whole world to sustainable energy.

“We actually did the calculations to figure out what it would take to transition the whole world to sustainable energy. You’d need 100 Gigafactories.”

Given this fact, we should not exclude the likelihood that the Tesla Gigafactory may appear in New Zealand.