Tesla Announces $3.6 Billion Investment in Nevada for Factories, Promises 3,000 New Jobs

Tesla will invest more than $3B in the United States. Nevada It will expand its Gigafactory, as well as create two additional factories. This investment is projected to generate thousands of new jobs. jobs Tuesday was the official announcement of the company in the state.

“We will be investing over $3.6 billion more to continue growing Gigafactory Nevada, adding 3,000 new team members and two new factories: a 100 GWh 4680 cell factory (with capacity to produce enough batteries for 1.5 million light-duty vehicles annually), as well as our first high-volume Semi factory,” Tesla stated in a blog post January 24, 2019. Semi is Tesla’s fully electric combination truck that is claimed to have an energy consumption of less than 2 KWh per mile as well as a range of 500 miles.

Nevada Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo pointed to Tesla’s new investment while suggesting that the state’s best opportunities for economic growth involve providing a pro-business environment for companies in Nevada.

“Whether it’s closing the lithium loop, unlocking innovation and investment in logistics, entertainment, science and technology, or embracing entrepreneurship, the message is that Nevada is ready to partner,” Lombardo said In an annual state-of-the-state address on Monday.

The United States is encouraging the production of electric vehicles (EVs) but China has a significant share of the raw materials that support the sector.

Cobalt and lithium are essential for the production of EV batteries. Chinese chemical processors/refiners are responsible for 60% of lithium midstream production and 82 percent of cobalt.

In the meantime, Mitch Landrieu (infrastructure coordinator for the Biden Administration) called the Tesla announcement part of the $300 billion private sector investment made in semiconductors and clean energy manufacturing after Joe Biden assumed office.

Nevada Gigafactory, Fourth-Quarter Results

Tesla has invested $6.2Billion in Nevada since 2014 to construct its 5.4M-square-foot Gigafactory. The construction process created 17,000 local jobs. Over 11,000 people have been directly hired by the company.

The facility has made 7.3 billion cells, 1.5 million batteries packs and 1,000,000 energy module to date.

Tesla operates the Nevada plant together with the facility’s co-investor Panasonic, which is also a key cell supplier of the firm. The facility is primarily focused on supplying the company’s Fremont vehicle assembly plant in California with high-voltage battery packs.

The Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada is currently America’s largest battery production operation. Tesla has invested almost $10 billion in the facility since 2014, when it added the $3.6 billion investment.

Earlier this month, the company had reported that it had only delivered 405,278 vehicles in the fourth quarter, short of Wall Street’s expectations of delivering around 420,000–425,000 vehicles. This issue is expected to be addressed during Tesla’s earnings reveal.

EV Investment, Poor Infrastructure

Tesla’s competitors like Ford, Volkswagen, Toyota, General Motors, Hyundai, and others have also announced plans involving billions of dollars’ worth of investment in the United States to manufacture batteries and other materials related to electric vehicles.

In December 2022. for example, Hyundai announced a $4–5 billion investment in Georgia to build a battery manufacturing plant.

Envision Automotive Energy Supply Company, Japan’s leading supplier of electric vehicle batteries, announced an investment of $810 million in South Carolina that month to create a battery-cell plant.

The United States faces another challenge: poor infrastructure to support EV adoption. California plans, for instance, to make all new cars sold within the state by 2035 fully-electric or plug-in hybrids.

In September, however, the state power grid issued an alert asking citizens not to charge electric vehicles because of the increasing demand for electricity.