Palo Alto, California - Tesla has picked the Austin, Texas, area as the site for its largest vehicle assembly plant.
The new factory will build Tesla’s upcoming Cybertruck pickup and will be a second US manufacturing site for the Model Y compact SUV, largely for distribution to the East Coast.
Tesla doesn’t have a lot of time to get the factory running if it wants to meet target production dates. The company says on its website that the Cybertruck will be available starting late next year. Tesla has often missed promised production dates in the past.
The radically-styled, stainless steel bodied electric bakkie will be offered in three configurations, with the range-topping tri-motor all-wheel-drive model offering a claimed range of over 805km, and this version will also reportedly sprint from 0-60mph (96km/h) in just 2.9 seconds.
The company has pledged to invest $1.1 billion (R18.1bn) and said it will pay a minimum wage of $15 per hour (R248) to employees and provide health insurance, paid leave and other benefits.
The area that’s home to the University of Texas at Austin, and tech companies such as Dell, was a candidate for the plant all along, but Tulsa, Oklahoma, emerged in mid-May as another possibility.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reportedly been happy with Texas, where his SpaceX rocket company has operations in Brownsville and in McGregor north of Austin.
The new factory will be Tesla’s biggest so far, although it may not employ as many workers as the 10 000 at its factory in Fremont, California. The electric car maker has said it wants the new factory to be in the centre of the country and closer to eastern markets.
The Fremont factory currently is Tesla's only US assembly plant. It has a second US factory in Reno, Nevada, where it builds batteries for its vehicles and employs about 6500 people. Tesla also has a factory in Shanghai and another one under construction in Germany.
Musk has been unhappy with California, where earlier this year he flouted local orders to stay closed to help stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. Musk has threatened to move the company's headquarters out of Palo Alto and all future vehicles out of the plant in Fremont, a reworked factory that once was run jointly by Toyota and General Motors.
The Austin area’s chamber of commerce says that Texas has no corporate or individual income taxes. It also touts the region’s young workforce as one of the most educated in the country. Nearly 47% of adults have at least a bachelor’s degree, pushing Austin into the top 10 among large metro areas, the site says. But at present, Tesla can’t legally sell its vehicles in Texas. A state law requires cars to be sold through franchised dealers, not company stores like Tesla operates.
Tulsa put up a good fight, but may have been used to win better terms from Texas. Oklahoma boasts about its low tax rates and cost of living, particularly low utility costs. Musk even visited the Tulsa site earlier this month.
IOL & AP