When work began on the Tesla Gigafactory in January, the Sparks, Nev., facility was proposed to total 10 million sf. The new plan makes the original vision almost cutesy.
Treehugger reports that Tesla Motors purchased an additional 1,200 acres next to the Gigafactory and is looking to buy an additional 350 acres.
If Tesla continues to make the plant larger, it will go from four blocks to seven blocks and could make the Gigafactory between 17.5 million and 24 million sf. At the high end of that estimate, the Gigafactory would be the world's largest building based on footprint.
At an initial cost of $5 billion, the Gigafactory's goal is to make 50 gigawatt-hours of lithium-ion batteries, or as many as 500,000 batteries, for electric cars by 2020. Tesla is building the plant to provide batteries for the Model 3 car, which will be in production in late 2017 or early 2018. A few other models, such as Tesla’s Model S and Model X SUV, will also have batteries produced there.
Tesla received the land for free from Nevada last September and also was granted $1.3 billion in tax breaks. The first construction phase of the factory—a 900,000-sf facility—is nearly completed and is on track to start equipment installation later this year and battery production in 2016.
Related Stories
Industrial Facilities | Jul 25, 2016
Snøhetta, Bjarke Ingels among four finalists for S.Pellegrino bottling plant design
A committee will evaluate proposals in September.
Industrial Facilities | Jun 16, 2016
Western U.S. ports prepare to handle increased shipping from expanded Panama Canal
The expansion of the Panama Canal might make some eastern U.S. ports more attractive to large-vessel operators. But West Coast ports aren’t ready to roll over and play dead just yet.
Movers+Shapers | Jun 16, 2016
THE PANAMAX EFFECT: Panama Canal expansion could trigger an East Coast construction boom
Cities lining the East Coast and Gulf Coast, from New York City to New Orleans, are spending big bucks to accommodate the larger vessels that will now be able to cross a wider and deeper Panama Canal.
Self-Storage Facilities | Apr 20, 2016
Design is now a factor in storage wars
Self-storage facilities are blending into neighborhoods better, and competing for rentals from women, their primary customers.
Industrial Facilities | Apr 13, 2016
Ford begins 10-year plan to centralize Dearborn, Mich., campus
The company said that it will rebuild 7.5 million sf of work space over a 10-year period, which will shift 30,000 employees from 70 buildings now into two primary locations.
Game Changers | Feb 5, 2016
Tesla: Battery storage is not just about electric vehicles
With his $5 billion, 13.6 million-sf Gigafactory, Tesla’s Elon Musk seeks to change the economics of battery energy storage, forever.
Game Changers | Feb 4, 2016
GAME CHANGERS: 6 projects that rewrite the rules of commercial design and construction
BD+C’s inaugural Game Changers report highlights today’s pacesetting projects, from a prefab high-rise in China to a breakthrough research lab in the Midwest.
| Jan 14, 2016
How to succeed with EIFS: exterior insulation and finish systems
This AIA CES Discovery course discusses the six elements of an EIFS wall assembly; common EIFS failures and how to prevent them; and EIFS and sustainability.
Giants 400 | Sep 10, 2015
INDUSTRIAL SECTOR GIANTS: Stantec, Turner, Jacobs among top industrial AEC firms
BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest industrial sector design and construction firms, as reported in the 2015 Giants 300 Report
Industrial Facilities | Sep 3, 2015
DATA CENTER SECTOR GIANTS: Fluor, Gensler, Holder Construction among top data center AEC firms
BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest data center sector design and construction firms, as reported in the 2015 Giants 300 Report
