Tesla gets offered $1B Incentive Package to Build Cybertruck Gigafactory in Missouri

Tesla was offered a $1 billion incentive package to build its Cybertruck factory in Joplin, Missouri. The proposed factory could have up to 7,000 employees. In a briefing on Monday, President of the Chamber Toby Teeter mentioned that a formal proposal outlining the city’s offer was already been submitted to Tesla about a week ago.

According to JoplinGlobe, if the bid by the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce and the city of Joplin were successful, it would prepare a factory site stretching a mile by two miles near West 20th Street and JJ Highway.

"Tesla is looking for a new location somewhere in the Midwest for a Gigafactory," Teeter said during city hall briefing. "Approximately a week ago the city of Joplin and the Chamber of Commerce put a formal bid together and submitted it to Tesla corporate."

This places Joplin in the running against cities like Austin, TX, and Tulsa, OK, which has offered a massive 1500-acre plot of land for the upcoming electric pickup factory.

Teeter's incentive package proposes:

• A 1,042-acre site that would be sold at a 50% discount to Tesla.
• A 100% tax break for 12 years.
• State incentives that would include Missouri Works tax credits to provide capital as well as funding to buy equipment and assistance with workforce training. Missouri automotive manufacturing incentives, Missouri Builds, and state and local sales tax breaks are part of the package.

Wildwood Ranch developer Jimmer Pinjuv describes the size of a site as follows: "It's big. A section is 640 acres, which is 1 mile by 1 mile, so this is almost two sections, which would be nearly 1 mile by 2 miles."

Answering the question of how big it will be in city blocks, Pinyuv said that it would be approximately 12 blocks by 24 blocks. The property pitched to Tesla offers access to BSNF rail service, was near Interstates 44 and 49 and within minutes of the Joplin Regional Airport, Teeter said.

"We have great assets for them if [Tesla] were to choose this," Pinjuv said. The location is near a Liberty Utilities electric generating plant near a railroad line and was near the highways which would be "imperative assets for a development of that sort."

"It's an incredible effort on Toby and the chamber's part," Pinjuv said. "I'm so impressed. It will be interesting to see if we get a response."

Mayor Gary Shaw believes that this would be a great opportunity for the city. "I think it would be a great opportunity to get ready if we weren't. I think it just opens some doors. One of the things Toby and we, as a city, saw with our two major medical centers and the KCU medical school coming here is that we need to attract people to come to our community," he says.

To operate a factory of this size would require approximately 7,000 workers, Shaw believes that this would be attractive not only to people who live in the city but to the rest of the state. "I am just looking forward to a positive response from them," he said. "We'd love to have the opportunity."

Joplin's area workforce availability amounts to 193,000 people within a 20-mile radius and 279,000 within 30 miles, Teeter said. There are 150 battery engineers in the workforce here along with more than 500 licensed engineers within a 60-mile radius, Teeter said.

"We're also the trucking capital of America," he said. "That gives Tesla front-row access to its next market with four of the largest trucking companies in the nation within a 60-mile radius," Teeter said.

Tesla would save $75 million in annual payroll compared with other manufacturing engineer wages in markets like Nashville and Austin, "who we also anticipate being in play for this Midwest facility," Teeter said.