Tesla is Coming to Texas
Wednesday afternoon Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, announced they would be building a manufacturing facility on 2,000 acres just outside of downtown Austin off of Texas 130 and Harold Green Road.
According to Yahoo Finance, the Tesla factory is meant primarily for the company's all-electric pickup vehicle, the Cybertruck, and it will manufacture the Semi, Model 3 as well as Model Y Teslas vehicles.
Gov. Abbott offered, "Tesla's Gigifactory Texas' will keep Texas economy the strongest in the nation and will create thousands of jobs for Texans."
KVEU reports the new facility plans to employ 5,000 people with wages starting at $35,000 a year. In the report, the minimum wage was to begin at $15 an hour and Tesla is supposed to be seeking both entry-level positions as well as engineers and scientists for the new facility.
Tesla offers that "Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy through increasingly affordable electric vehicles and energy products. To ramp production to 500,000 cars per year, Tesla alone will require today’s entire worldwide supply of lithium-ion batteries. The Tesla Gigafactory was born out of necessity and will supply enough batteries to support Tesla’s projected vehicle demand."
There was a toss-up between building the factory in Oklahoma or Texas but according to the report, Texas offered the automaker millions of dollars in tax breaks.
Tesla officials have said they intend to break ground on the factory by the third quarter of this year. The Cybertruck is expected to be available starting late next year.
The location, right along the Colorado River in Travis Country has been hailed as a " ecological paradise" by Elon Musk as he offered that the facility will be 'stunning' and mentioned a boardwalk where you can bike, ride and walk the trail.
Beware of These 50 Jobs That Might Vanish in the Next 50 Years