Tesla On The Hunt For New Factory Location
Tesla will have to find or build a new factory for its forthcoming Model Y, Elon Musk told investors at Tuesday's shareholder meeting. The question is, where?
Musk said the Fremont factory is bursting at the seams, highlighting parking problems facing employees as just one reason for the move, Bloomberg reports.
“There’s just no way we could do Model Y at Fremont,” Musk said. “So it’s going to have to be somewhere else.”
Tesla is deciding the location for a plant to build the Model Y, a smaller SUV crossover scheduled to arrive as soon as late 2019. Wherever the new factory lands, it will likely cost more than the Fremont location, which Tesla picked up from Toyota in a fire sale for just $42M.
Tesla is building its first Gigafactory in Nevada and is finalizing plans for three additional locations where it will manufacture the battery its cars are designed around. Musk told shareholders he has plans to build 10 to 20 gigafactories worldwide, eventually leveraging the battery technology into the broader energy market.
Since its June 2010 debut as a public company, Tesla has conducted 10 offerings of new equity or debt, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Most recently, the company raised $1.4B selling stock and convertible bonds in March.
Tesla has not responded to requests for additional details.
