Tesla To Invest $3.6 Billion In Nevada Expansion

Tesla continues to ramp up its manufacturing capabilities, with the latest being an expansion of its Nevada Gigafactory complex.

Reuters reported Tesla as saying that it will invest more than $3.6 billion to expand its Nevada Gigafactory complex with two new factories.

One of those factories will mass produce Tesla’s long-delayed semi electric truck, and the other factory will make its new 4680 battery cell.

Nevada expansion

Reuters reported that the cell factory will be able to make enough batteries for 2 million light-duty vehicles annually, including batteries using the 4680-type cell.

The 4680 is reportedly key to Tesla meeting a goal of halving battery costs and ramping up battery production nearly 100-fold by 2030.

The new facility located at the Tesla complex near Reno, are expected to employ about 3,000 people. This is where the EV maker runs a battery joint venture with Japan’s Panasonic and makes vehicle parts and power backup systems.

Panasonic currently supplies cells to the gigafactory, and Tesla assembles them into battery packs there.

The second factory in Nevada will be dedicated to the Tesla’s long-delayed semi electric truck, and suggests that the EV maker is committing to large-scale production of the lorry that was supposed to arrive back in 2019.

Tesla’s semi electric truck is designed for 18-wheel semi-trailer vehicles and has a range of 500 miles (or 800 kilometers) on a single charge, with a gross weight of 81,000 pounds (37 tonnes), including trailer and cargo, Reuters noted.

Other expansions

Tesla it seems is in an expansionist mood of late, despite concern about oversupply.

Earlier this month government filings revealed that Tesla had applied to expand its gigafactory in Texas with an investment totalling $775.7 million.

That, combined with the Nevada expansion, would one of Tesla’s largest expansion moves in recent times, after it spent $5.5 billion constructing a gigafactory in Germany last year, joining its existing assembly plants in California, Shanghai, and Texas.

The expansion comes despite some oversupply issues at Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory, that resulted in the firm planning to lower Shanghai’s production – the first time it had voluntarily reduced manufacturing capacity there since the plant opened in late 2020.

Tesla’s previous production drops at the Shanghai plant were caused by the city’s two-month Covid lockdown and supply-chain issues.

Just after Christmas 2022 it was reported that Tesla planned to run its key Shanghai plant on a reduced schedule in January 2023, continuing its reduced production that began earlier in December.

The Shanghai plant, with about 20,000 workers, accounted for more than half of Tesla’s production for the first three quarters of 2022.

Tesla has also recently reduced the prices of certain EV models in the face of declining consumer demand.