Tesla Invests Additional US$3.6 Billion In Nevada To Scale Battery And Semi-Truck Production

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February 1, 2023

ESG Review Staff

Tesla Nevada Gigafactory (Image Courtesy Of Tesla)

In 2014, Tesla made a commitment to invest US$3.5 billion in Nevada with its first Gigafactory. The company’s goal was to build a facility capable of producing 35 GWh of battery cells annually — enough to manufacture about 500,000 vehicles per year. Tesla said that this level of battery manufacturing was unprecedented for a single facility at the time, with the expected output being greater than all global battery production in 2013 combined. Along with other on-site vendors, Tesla planned to hire 6500 full-time team members over the next 10 years to build and ramp Gigafactory Nevada.

Since 2014, Tesla has invested US$6.2 billion in Nevada and built a 5.4 million sq.ft. Gigafactory — which the company considers a cornerstone of its mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. The buildout alone provided 17,000 local construction jobs.

To date, the team at Gigafactory Nevada has successfully produced:

7.3 billion battery cells (37 GWh+ annually)
1.5 million battery packs
3.6 million drive units
1 million energy modules (14 GWh+ total)

To complete this work, Tesla directly hired more than 11,000 team members.

Tesla said that it will be investing more than US$3.6 billion more to continue growing Gigafactory Nevada, adding 3000 new team members and two new factories: a 100-GWh 4680 cell factory (with capacity to produce enough batteries for 1.5 million light-duty vehicles annually), as well as the company’s first high-volume Semi factory. Semi is Tesla’s fully electric combination truck, with 500 miles (805 km) of range and energy consumption of less than 2 KWh per mile.

Earlier this year, Tesla announced that it produced 439,702 vehicles and delivered 405,278 vehicles in Q4 2022. For full-year 2022, Tesla’s vehicle deliveries grew 40% year-over-year to 1,313,851 while production grew 47% year-over-year to 1,369,434. Analyst consensus estimates for Tesla’s 2023 deliveries is around 2 million, which would represent a 52% increase from 2022.