They surveyed the land and liked the lithium content of the clay, the silicon rich sand and adjacent salt deposit. They'll be doing research, loads of cells, materials processing - oh and they might need an airport for SEVTOL - Supersonic Electric Vertical Take Off and landing.
It's interesting that most of the electric plane research projects are low altitude light planes, when it might be better for an electric (or hybrid) plane to be optimised for high-latitude, thin air, less drag flight. You need lots of power for take-offs, aborted landings, otherwise you want efficient cruise. Optionally at a high speed if you want supersonic, less important if replacing Boeing's MBA-optimised failures.
