Tesla may have decided on the site of its anticipated Cybertruck plant, and it intends to waste no time. Electrek, citing “a reliable source familiar with the matter,” reports that the next Tesla Gigafactory (excuse me, make that “Terafactory”) will be built in the vicinity of Austin, Texas. (The AP is reporting that the list has been narrowed to Austin or Tulsa, Oklahoma.)
Electrek’s source says the Gigafactory Nevada engineering team has been told to start the process of planning the new plant, which will produce both Model Y and the new Cybertruck.
The choice of location is no big surprise, as Tesla has already said that its next Gig would be located somewhere in the middle of the country—the announcement doesn’t seem to be related to Mr. Musk’s recent threat to move operations out of California.
The shocker is the proposed timeline. Tesla wants the Texas (or Tulsa) Terafactory to be producing Model Ys by the end of this year—an ambitious goal even by Tesla’s standards (and one that would have been considered laughable in the auto industry of only a few years ago). Gigafactory Shanghai began production within a year after breaking ground, so the new goal sounds impressive, but not impossible.
In the first phase, the new plant will have only a general assembly line, which will presumably assemble components shipped from Fremont or elsewhere, Electrek’s source indicates. The Terafactory will start cranking out Cybertrucks late next year.