Tesla has been in the news a lot lately and for good reason: the company's revolutionary products are saving lives on the road, powering entire islands with solar energy, and creating durable and cheap roof tiles that double as tiny little solar panels.
So when Elon Musk announced that Tesla met the deadline for its proposed GigaFactory, a giant facility where tons of clean-energy storing batteries will be produced cheaper than anywhere else on the planet, people took notice.
Musk just powered the massive facility on, and even though it's technically "active", it's still only a third of the size it's going to be.
The blue and green portions were just completed in January of this year, with the orange outlined part finished back in July of 2016. The red outlined portions of the GigaFactory will be the final stages of Musk's proposed mega-plant.
Even at only partial completion, the Gigafactory is officially rolling out batteries on its production lines for the upcoming Model 3 car.
The site already employs over 2,900 people and is bringing a new industry stateside that's been dominated by China, Japan, and South Korea for so long. The 4.9 million square foot facility located in the deserts of Reno, Nevada, has plenty of room for new hires as well: Tesla plans on hiring 4,000 additional employees as production demands increase thanks to the company's partnership with Panasonic.
Much of the Gigafactory's expansion will hinge, however, on whether or not Tesla can continue to hit its goals.
The company has had a problem with meeting their deadlines in the past, but with three successful milestones hit with its California back-up battery grid, autopilot updates, and GigaFactory battery cell production, the company looks to be on the right track. They didn't hit their target of getting 80,000 new Tesla cars on the road (they sold 76, 230 in their proposed timeframe) but things are looking good for the sexy, green company.
The Gigafactory's key to success is just how cheaply it can produce its massive, lithium-ion batteries.
Bloomberg reports that Tesla's large-scale battery production plays an instrumental part in the company's continued success. In order for the manufacturer to churn out the 500,000 Model 3 units it plans to have on the roads by 2018, they'll need to actually make the batteries to do it, and there aren't currently enough lithium-ion production facilities in the world that can do that kind of volume.
Tesla's "all-in" approach is helping to create the market's most affordable lithium-ion batteries, as well as jobs in Reno.
And although few businesses are willing to invest in batteries due to the cost of batteries constantly going down, make it difficult to profit off of them, Tesla's initial investment in the Gigafactory may just be the thing that makes them a profitable company with a wider product adoption rate.
Let's see if Musk's vision becomes a reality. (h/t Bloomberg)
from Distractify http://distractify.com/geek/2017/01/04/gigafactory-tesla-awesome
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