Elon Musk confirmed that the additional land located next to the factory will be used for an “ecological paradise”. It is a land of 522,730 feet (12 acres) of space. Elon Musk insisted that Tesla needs to get the factory on its feet financially first and then build the green space near the factory.
The designated area will be from the south end of Giga Texas to the Colorado River and will feature a boardwalk and a number of amenities. Musk also confirmed that the entire space will be open to the public. Giga Texas itself encompasses over 250 acres with more than 10,000,000 square feet of a factory floor. The facility opened last April and is currently capable of producing around 250,000 vehicles per year. When at full operating capacity, Tesla estimates Giga Texas will make over 500,000 cars a year.
Tesla currently has six manufacturing plants globally, five of which are large enough to be deemed “Gigafactories”. This year the automaker expects to produce 1.4 million vehicles, a 50% increase from the 930,422 EVs Tesla made in 2021. Tesla’s next Gigafactory could be in Canada. Canada’s industry and innovation minister recently confirmed negotiations with Tesla had taken place, with the automaker reportedly looking at several sites in Ontario and Quebec.
Ecological paradise plans from south portion of Giga Texas to river look great, however we must first get the factory financially on its feet
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 21, 2022
Land expansion
Tesla has revised its application for Giga Texas to reveal the 500,000 square foot expansion only recently. It is the expansion of the automaker’s electric vehicle production factory located outside of Austin. Tesla added 12 acres to the site’s limits of construction while adding 522,720 feet of space to the limit.
Upon inspection of the new filing and comparing it to the old filling, Tesla is proposing a change to the Giga Texas site plan by expanding the limits of construction. The acreage in the previous application was listed at 268. The new application lists it at 280. Additionally, the square footage of the factory is set to expand by 500,000 square feet. The previous application lists the limits of square footage at 11,674,080. The revised application filed by Tesla yesterday pushes the square footage limit to 12,196,800.
Tesla says Gigafactory Texas covers over 250 acres of land and has over 10,000,000 square feet of factory floor, so the applications both line up with the company’s description of the factory on its website. Gigafactory Texas currently builds 250,000 vehicles annually, according to Tesla’s most recent Shareholder Deck. However, the factory opened earlier this year and is not fully ramped. A few days ago, Tesla announced that the factory had built its 10,000th Model Y. Eventually, Gigafactory Texas is expected to build upwards of 500,000 vehicles annually.
