Report: Tesla Considering Austin, Tulsa for Next U.S. Factory

Texas and Oklahoma are two finalists for Tesla’s next U.S. factory, CNBC reported, citing a source intimately familiar with the site search.

The report said Tesla representatives visited two locations in Tulsa that may be a good fit for the fifth Gigafactory. Austin has been the favorite for the new factory, with Musk making references on Twitter about the possibility of a Texas factory.

Tulsa has had a public campaign to attract Tesla, launching a clever, meme-splattered website. “Seriously, we’re ready to close this deal, and we promise we’ll move fast, like Plaid powertrain fast,” the site says.

Austin and Tulsa are also located in truck country, which makes them a good home for manufacturing the Cybertruck and Semi, which is what is intended for the next factory.

Musk, angry about county health orders during the COVID-19 pandemic, said on Twitter Saturday that the company will move its headquarters and “future operations” out of California.

“Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependent on how Tesla is treated in the future.”

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt tweeted at Musk, offering to talk about a deal to bring Tesla to Oklahoma.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1259219390601539584

Musk said an announcement on the location of Tesla’s next factory in the U.S. could come as soon as this month, but likely within the next two months.

 

[SilverString]

"Texas reports highest one-day spike in coronavirus cases" (5/18/20). OK Musk, if that's what you want.
Countries that controlled the virus have recovered their economies faster. I think California will be doing better than the rest of the country economically as they may not have to close down repeatedly. IMHO

You should get your facts straight. The only real statistic that matters is the ratio between number of positive tests and number of deaths, which is on a downward curve in Texas over the last 7 days from 13% in April to 4% this week. Number of deaths means zero, and your post reeks of fear mongering.

 

[Merenkov]

Texas has 75% of the population of California, but only 67% of the GDP. In 2006, TX only had 52% of CA's GDP, so we'll see what the drop in oil prices does to TX in the next year or so.

Interesting fact: Per the American Wind Energy Association, Texas is the #1 wind power generator in the US, generating 5x as much wind energy as California (29,407 MW generated in Texas in 2019 versus 5,942 MW in California). 18% of our in-state energy in Texas is produced by the wind, compared to 7% in California. California obviously has plenty of wind, but the regulations and red tape in that state make it hard to develop wind farms...

 

[SilverString]

RE: Texas. I also believe you can't buy a car that is currently in the store or service center. It has to be delivered, Or am I missing something?

Mine was delivered. It was very nice.

 

[Mo City]

"Texas reports highest one-day spike in coronavirus cases" (5/18/20). OK Musk, if that's what you want.
Countries that controlled the virus have recovered their economies faster. I think California will be doing better than the rest of the country economically as they may not have to close down repeatedly. IMHO

Please educate yourself a little on this particular spike. More than 700 new cases of coronavirus reported after testing at meatpacking plants in Amarillo region

 

[Merenkov]

As a Texas driver, I like to tell people my Tesla is powered mostly by natural gas (40%), wind + solar (20%) and nuclear energy (10%). We’re still working on that last dirty 30% (coal). The vast majority of that NG power, by the way, is produced by natural gas combined cycle, the cleanest, most efficient fossil generation technology available.

 

[SilverString]

As a Texas driver, I like to tell people my Tesla is powered mostly by natural gas (40%), wind + solar (20%) and nuclear energy (10%). We’re still working on that last dirty 30% (coal). The vast majority of that NG power, by the way, is produced by natural gas combined cycle, the cleanest, most efficient fossil generation technology available.

I am assuming that's the fuel source breakdown for Austin Energy?

 

[Feathermerchan]

Nope. That's the whole state. Go to Google maps and look at West Texas. You'll see hundreds of wind turbines.

I think where Tesla bought land (between Hutto and Taylor) allows them to choose their retail electric provider. That should be an interesting negotiation.

 

[Merenkov]

Feathermerchan is correct - that fuel source breakdown is for the entire state of Texas. I just checked the Austin Energy site for a local breakdown. Based literally on today’s energy load/demand: 35% solar, 31% wind and 34% nonrenewable. As an aside, my family owns several hundred acres of land in north Texas with several producing natural gas wells. We're currently negotiating a 40-year surface lease for a massive solar farm. People really should visit the state before passing judgment based on old stereotypes.

 

[SmartElectric]

The vast majority of that NG power, by the way, is produced by natural gas combined cycle, the cleanest, most efficient fossil generation technology available.

Crossing state lines? Oil firms flare Texas gas as investors vent on climate

Natural gas emissions profile is nearly that of coal with the truly unfortunate fact that Texas has one of the worst policies and enforcement of flaring gas.

Texas allows producers to burn unwanted gas for six months and routinely issues waivers after the six months expires

I wouldn't brag about the efficiency of the burning of the gas to produce electricity when there is an unfortunate situation compounded by the lack of attention to the environment by Texas, and it's deliberate. Not throwing stone here, Ontario Canada has a truly clean grid but currently depends on combined cycle gas for peak (about 7% of Ontario production in 2019), but we're predominant Nuclear which has it's own downsides.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Gas is only being flared because it is a by produce of oil production and they have no way to transport it to eager markets. Environmentalists make it almost impossible to install new natural gas pipelines. Also takes a long time to build local natural gas generators for local electric consumption.
Burning Natural Gas to generate electricity is much cleaner than oil/coal. Shame to see it wastefully flared off.

 

[CyberGus]

My power is 100% renewable, as I use Austin Energy's "Green Choice" plan:

GreenChoice Renewable Energy

The cost is slightly more or less than the standard rate, depending on the market fluctuations of fossil-fuel prices. For me, I think that works out to about $0.14/kWh.

 

[CyberGus]

Please educate yourself a little on this particular spike. More than 700 new cases of coronavirus reported after testing at meatpacking plants in Amarillo region

Here's the Texas dashboard of Covid-19 tracking:

https://www.dshs.state.tx.us/coronavirus/cases.aspx

The number of cases by county tracks proportionally to size, more or less, (Houston, Dallas, Fort-Worth, Austin) until you get to...Potter County? That's tiny little Amarillo (200k) out in the panhandle. I was wondering why they were an outlier, I guess it's the meatpacking plants.

 

[Mo City]

Here's the Texas dashboard of Covid-19 tracking:

https://www.dshs.state.tx.us/coronavirus/cases.aspx

The number of cases by county tracks proportionally to size, more or less, (Houston, Dallas, Fort-Worth, Austin) until you get to...Potter County? That's tiny little Amarillo (200k) out in the panhandle. I was wondering why they were an outlier, I guess it's the meatpacking plants.

Indeed that is a truly heartbreaking development and I feel very badly for folks living up there.

For the state as a whole, next week's numbers should begin to reflect the adjustments that became effective May 8th (which I fully supported). Cases will increase. How much is the question.

Gotta admit I'm a little nervous but waiting until Jun/Jul/Aug wouldn't have made much difference IMO.

EDIT:

Daily new COVID cases in Texas for recent days in May:
13th: 1,355
14th: 1,448
15th: 1,347
16th: 1,801
17th: 785
18th: 909

Potter Co (includes Amarillo)
13th: 148
14th: 94
15th: 41
16th: 618
17th: 49
18th: 0

 

[Feathermerchan]

Fun fact. Tesla is interested in becoming a utility and probably using it's million mile battery in cars to store energy from the grid and return it later at a higher price. The alleged location they bought is only about 5 miles from ERCOT operations (the grid in Texas operator).

As for Austin, its power is sold by the city. ie the city owns the power infrastructure. So customers have no retail provider choice. There may be rate options offered by the city but you are still paying the city. And as I understand it, in Texas a city owned electric company can use the electric revenue as it sees fit. Not just to pay for the production or acquisition of electricity.

 

[jboy210]

As a Texas driver, I like to tell people my Tesla is powered mostly by natural gas (40%), wind + solar (20%) and nuclear energy (10%). We’re still working on that last dirty 30% (coal). The vast majority of that NG power, by the way, is produced by natural gas combined cycle, the cleanest, most efficient fossil generation technology available.

We are all in on Tesla. As soon as we get Permission-to-Operate(PTO) from the utility, our Tesla cars (X and 3) and house will be largely powered from our Tesla SolarGlass roof and PowerWalls. Hopefully using nothing but solar power, definitely no coal, since we don't have anymore coal-fired plants.

 

[ohmman]

As for Austin, its power is sold by the city. ie the city owns the power infrastructure. So customers have no retail provider choice. There may be rate options offered by the city but you are still paying the city. And as I understand it, in Texas a city owned electric company can use the electric revenue as it sees fit. Not just to pay for the production or acquisition of electricity.

This is true, but the "use the electric revenue as it sees fit" is a little broad. There's an oversight committee, which is made up of the entire City Council, so there is customer representation in the council members they elect.

 

[jboy210]

This is true, but the "use the electric revenue as it sees fit" is a little broad. There's an oversight committee, which is made up of the entire City Council, so there is customer representation in the council members they elect.

Isn't that worse? The City Council could direct the money to be spend on a new building in some councilperson's district, rather than on the electrical infrastructure or personnel.

 

[ohmman]

Isn't that worse? The City Council could direct the money to be spend on a new building in some councilperson's district, rather than on the electrical infrastructure or personnel.

No. Public oversight shouldn't be worse. You can download the financial reports - Austin Energy doesn't appear to "direct" money outside of their operations as a general rule, except for things like streetlight repair and other energy-related expenses.

 

[Feathermerchan]

Or if they wanted to pay an incentive to locate a new business in their city. (Just being ornery)
Same is true for city owned water in Tx.
When TXU started building CPSS (Nuclear generating station) Austin wanted in so bad that they sued TXU to buy a part of it and succeeded. A municipality suing an investor owned, publicly traded company so it could have a share!
Then when the construction prices increased due to regulatory changes after TMI, they wanted out. But it was a contract. So they sued to get out! I think TXU had to pay them back essentially everything they paid in.

In another case, A factory/office was going up in city limits but TXU had legal rights to serve the facility and lower rates. I was told that the city advised them to ask if TXU could supply them water because if they bought electricity from TXU, Austin would not sell them water.
(This is second hand)

 

[Iain]

As a Texas driver, I like to tell people my Tesla is powered mostly by natural gas (40%), wind + solar (20%) and nuclear energy (10%). We’re still working on that last dirty 30% (coal). The vast majority of that NG power, by the way, is produced by natural gas combined cycle, the cleanest, most efficient fossil generation technology available.

I live in Austin and my power comes from Perdaneles Electric. I pay an extra $0.45 per 1000 kw for green power. Apparently 100% of my energy is from wind, solar, thermal etc.