Austin Business Journal January 27, 2022 |MANUFACTURING|”Model Y, battery cell production underway at Tesla’s Austin-area factory” by Kathryn Hardison.
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Tesla plant at Tesla Road and TX130
“Electric vehicle and battery production has commenced at Tesla Inc.’s Austin-area factory.”
After about a year and a half and $1.1B in initial investment, the Austin Tesla Giga plant is beginning to produce components. This was announced during Tesla’s earning call on January 26 by CEO Elon Musk. Tesla says Austin represents ultimately a $10B investment.
Tesla has been buying batteries from Panasonic but will quadruple it’s own battery production by 2025-a move that analyst’s see as a positive-differentiator.
The work at Austin reportedly started late in 2021. According to Drew Baglino (SVP Tesla) batteries that consist of 4,680 cells are being assembled into vehicles in Austin. “The 4680 and pack installation tools here at Giga Austin are progressing well with some areas producing first parts.”
When incentives were being negotiated Tesla promised 10,000 direct jobs but they now are citing 20,000 direct jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs in the Austin Metro area. Current Central Texas manufacturing leaders are NXP (4,400 Employees), Samsung (3,000), Applied Materials (2,779), Austin White Lime (N/A) and Flex (2,118).