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Tesla Almost Done With First Phase Of Gigafactory Construction
by Sarah Shelton July 13, 2015
LETS GET THEM SOME NEW BATTERIES!
Tesla Motors is close to completing the first construction phase of its battery-building Gigafactory.


The latest update on the Gigafactory reveals that a 900,000 square foot building is almost fully built and will soon be ready for the manufacturing equipment to be installed. Steve Hill, director of the governor’s office of economic development, spoke with Nevada’s Legislative Commission about the progress late last month.

“They built the building,” Hill said. “They will be starting to move machinery into that building in order to make batteries relatively soon.”
As part of its agreement with Nevada, where the Gigafactory is located, Tesla must issue quarterly reports to the Legislative Commission on the building’s progress. The arrangement with Nevada also includes a $1.3 billion tax incentives package for Tesla.

During his update, Hill remarked that construction of the Gigafactory is moving faster than projected. Tesla hasn’t released any official statements about the Gigafactory’s progress recently, but had said last February that schedules “remain on plan to begin equipment installation later this year and for the start of battery pack production in 2016.”

The progress report also revelead that Tesla has invested $143 million building the Gigafactory, $80 million of which was spent during the first quarter of 2015.

At 900,000 square feet, the current facility already appears quite massive. But this will be far from its final size, which has been estimated to be around 10-million square feet. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said this first phase will serve as the “pilot plant.”

Two months ago, a drone flyover captured video (posted above) of the plant under construction, putting in perspective the size of the Gigafactory’s first phase.



Las Vegas Review-Journal