Tesla to Spend Over $700 Million Expanding Texas Gigafactory

Tesla has earmarked $717 million the company intends to spend on four new projects that will expand its Austin, Texas Gigafactory.

As the Austin Business Journal reports(Opens in a new window) (via Electrek(Opens in a new window)), the huge investment of cash was discovered through a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation on Jan. 9. Tesla details four projects, with construction beginning later this month if approval for the factory expansion is granted quickly enough.

The largest of the proposed new projects is called Cell 1(Opens in a new window), it’s expected to cost $368 million, and will create a new 693,093-square-foot facility. The second largest project is called Drive Unit(Opens in a new window), has an estimated cost of $85 million, and will be 423,032 square feet. Then there’s the Cathode(Opens in a new window) project, which is 321,186 square feet and will cost an estimated $260 million. Finally, there’s the Cell Test Lab(Opens in a new window) project, which is only 2,560 square feet and will cost roughly $3.7 million.

All four projects have a start date of between Jan. 23 and Feb. 6 this year, with Tesla hoping to have the Cell Test Lab project completed by Aug. 25, and the Cathode project completed by Dec. 18. The Drive Unit project won’t be finished until Jan. 15, 2024, while the largest Cell 1 facility will take until Feb. 12, 2024. Of course, these dates are all based on the expansion being approved in less than two weeks.

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