Tesla has utilized for permits to double the scale of Gigafactory Texas in Austin because it provides new car manufacturing.
Tesla loves giant factories. Every one among its factories ranks amongst a number of the largest buildings on the planet, and they’re nonetheless rising.
Gigafactory Texas already spams over 5 million sq. toes.
Now, The Austin Enterprise Journal reviews that Tesla filed 10 new purposes with the Texas Division of Licensing and Regulation final week to double the scale of the Austin manufacturing facility.
The filings are reportedly mild on particulars, however they do point out ‘physique in white’, ‘castings’, and extra:
The current TDLR filings reveal little about Tesla’s enlargement plans. However a number of the names for particular person tasks cited within the filings — together with Physique in White, Castings, Paint, Plastics, Stamping and Drive Unit — present hints in regards to the enlargement’s functions. “Physique in white” is the stage in vehicle manufacturing the place a automobile’s physique is put collectively earlier than issues such because the motor and seats are put in.
At present, Gigafactory Texas produces the Mannequin Y, Cybertruck, and 4680 battery cells that energy the Cybertruck.
Tesla plans to construct its lately unveiled Robotaxi/Cybercab at Gigafactory Texas.
The automaker can also be trying to construct two new autos primarily based on Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y, however these will likely be constructed on the identical manufacturing traces for Mannequin Y on the manufacturing facility.
Nonetheless, these autos are anticipated to be pretty high-volume applications, and subsequently, they may seemingly require new manufacturing traces for some components of the autos, like stamping and drive models.
As for the Robotaxi, it’s constructed on an all-new platform and manufacturing course of, which Tesla calls ‘unboxed’. Among the new manufacturing facility expansions are anticipated to help Tesla’s manufacturing of the Robotaxi, which automakers consider will attain hundreds of thousands of models by the top of the last decade.
The constructing allow purposes point out a begin of development now and to be accomplished by the top of 2025.
Tesla’s new cheaper Mannequin 3/Y-based autos are anticipated to start out prediction at Gigafactory Texas within the first half of 2025 whereas the Robotaxi is predicted to return in 2026.
