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Gigafactory and Texas direct sales

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TexasEV

Well-Known Member
Jun 5, 2013
7,656
8,941
Austin, TX
Tesla has said it needs to make a decision on battery factory location this year in order for it to be completed on time. The Texas legislature doesn't meet again until January 2015, so Tesla wasn't going to be able to use the lure of the gigafactory to encourage Texas legislators to do the right thing and vote in the peoples' interest instead of with the auto dealer cartel.

But now it can!
Tesla Plans at Least Two Battery Sites as Musk Emphasizes Speed - Bloomberg

This is genius-- by picking two sites and starting work on them up to groundbreaking, the final choice of locations will still be in play while the Texas legislature is meeting in early 2015. Say they start work on permitting and engineering on Texas and Nevada sites. If the Texas legislature votes to remove restrictions on who can sell new cars, Tesla will continue developing the Texas site. If not, the Texas site plans get mothballed and work proceeds in Nevada.
 
My predictions are that 1) a second GF will be under construction for months, when the first one starts production in 2017, and 2) after 2019, Tesla will double its cell/battery pack production capacity every 2 years.
 
Isn't anyone concerned about the money that'll be wasted by developing two locations and then mothballing one of them? Seems a bit extravagant.
Not really:

1) Sometimes two small is more efficient than one big.

2) Two plants mean redundancy. I recall when you couldn't get DEC processors due to a plant shutdown. It's one reason why DEC is no longer around. Even a mothballed plant would only take a couple of weeks to get going.
 
If I understand the plan, they are backing two sites to try to avoid getting caught in a regulatory swamp in a sole-site selection.
That's the plan as Elon described it in the article. But it has the added advantage of putting off the factory construction at either site until the Texas legislature is in session. That will give the legislators more incentive to do the right thing (and an excuse to give their auto dealer contributors when they vote against the cartel). I hope that was one reason for the plan but they're smart enough not to say that out loud.