Elon Musk: U.S. Will Get “Two or Three” More Tesla Gigafactories

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the U.S. will get “two or three” more Gigafactories within the next few years, teasing that the new locations will be announced at the end of 2017. The comments were made at the National Governors Association summer meeting, reports Electrek.

Three new Tesla Gigafactories were confirmed at a shareholder meeting last month, but up until now it was unclear where they would be built. Musk has hinted at the need to build Gigafactories abroad, with Asia and Europe being the most likely candidates, but now we know at least two will be in the U.S. The new factories will be capable of building complete cars, not just battery packs like the Gigafactory still under construction in Nevada.

Making the announcement in a room full of governors was no accident. The move was likely an attempt to initiate a bidding war for the massive plants. The first Gigafactory took a $5 billion investment to get off the ground and could eventually create 10,000 jobs. Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval said in 2014 that he expects the Gigafactory to generate $100 billion in economic impact to the region over the next 20 years. Tax abatements helped lure Tesla to Nevada, but Musk said that wasn’t the only reason it chose the Silver State for its first Gigafactory site. The CEO said he liked Nevada for its progressive stance on manufacturing, which allows factories to get up and running quickly.

We won’t know where the new plants will be built until the end of the year, but until then expect governors to be jockeying to get Gigafactories for their own states.

Source: Electrek

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