Featured Image Credit: Tesla
The location of the upcoming Tesla Cybertruck 'Terafactory' was seemingly confirmed recently with the electric car maker’s reported land acquisition in Austin, Texas. The deal, which is reportedly valued at a little less than $5.3 million, will provide Tesla with a 2,100-acre piece of land that resides about 12 miles outside of Austin.
Tesla’s reported land acquisition was outlined in an extensive document from the Texas Comptroller’s office. The 86-page document covers several aspects of the deal, from the dimensions of the 2,100-acre plot to the purposes of the project. Based on the document, Tesla was pretty clear with its intentions: it would be building electric cars in Austin, Texas. The company would be paying a good price for the land too, with documents showing the acquisition to be worth $5,298,275 for the entire site.
In a recent tweet, Elon Musk has stated that Tesla has the option to purchase the Austin, Texas land. That being said, Musk also stated that Tesla has not formally bought the land just yet. This could point to ongoing negotiations, and other possible details about the reported deal that are yet to be ironed out.
Tesla has an option to purchase this land, but has not exercised it
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 18, 2020
Interestingly enough, the property that Tesla is reportedly acquiring is currently a sand and graveling mining site, and it is equipped with a fully-operational concrete batch plant supporting the needs of numerous central Texas construction projects. This bodes well for the location, seeing as it is already being utilized by a prominent business in the area.
Tesla did not specify which vehicle it would be building in the Austin, Texas plant, though all signs point to the site being used as a Cybertruck factory. This facility was initially dubbed as a “Gigafactory” by CEO Elon Musk in a Twitter poll, but in the recent Earnings Call, both Musk and CFO Zachary Kirkhorn noted that the Cybertruck plant would be better dubbed as a “Terafactory,” likely because of the facility's capacity and size.
What is very exciting about in the recent documents from the Texas Comptroller’s office was the indication that the upcoming electric vehicle production facility is poised to start construction earlier than expected. According to a description of the upcoming project, the facility's “construction is proposed to commence in Q3 of 2020 pending all required approvals.”
If the Austin land is indeed the site of the Cybertruck Terafactory, there is a very good chance that the all-electric pickup will indeed be rolled out by late next year. Based on the pace of Gigafactory Shanghai, as well as the ongoing progress today in Gigafactory Berlin, it appears that Tesla has made a lot of headway in creating a system that results in quick factory buildouts. Hopefully, the first phase of the Texas site will be built quickly too, allowing the company to start deliveries of the Cybertruck by the end of next year.
With the Austin, Texas electric vehicle factory all but confirmed, does this mean that other rumored sites like Tulsa, Oklahoma, are completely off the running? Not necessarily. Tesla has a lot of other cars and projects that would likely need their own sites, after all, including the Tesla Semi, which will likely require a massive location of its own due to its battery cell supply needs. Tesla has also expressed its intentions to start mining operations, which would likely require other sites across the U.S. (or maybe even in other countries) as well.
