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Elon Musk took Twitter on Tuesday to announce his intention to open a domestic Cybertruck factory in the central U.S.
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Musk unveiled the all-electric pickup in November and said it will start at $39,900.
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The truck is Tesla’s sixth vehicle model since the company was founded in 2003.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday that he's looking for a location in the "central USA" to build a new factory.
Musk revealed the plan no other than Twitter, saying the factory would make the company’s forthcoming Tesla Cybertruck. He also said the company is eyeing the East Coast for the production of the company’s new Model Y SUV.
“Scouting locations for Cybertruck Gigafactory. Will be central USA. Model Y production for east coast too.”
Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla
Musk unveiled the truck, Tesla’s sixth model, in November at a company event in Los Angeles, and said it will start at $39,900. The truck, shaped like a large metallic trapezoid, will be competing against American-made trucks like the Ford F Series and General Motors’ Chevrolet Silverado. He has also said that that are already exceeded their expectations.
The Model Y, announced in March, will seat up to seven and could start deliveries in the first quarter of this year, according to a December report from Deutsche Bank. Should Tesla build Model Ys in the new factory, the vehicle will be manufactured in four places — China, Germany and Fremont, California, are the others. Recently, the company announced that it plans to build new Gigafactory near Berlin, Germany and recently opened another in Shanghai, China.
Despite establishing itself as one of the world's most innovative car companies, Tesla has struggled to make its vehicles, repeatedly as it tries to scale up operations.
“Investors have grown accustomed to Musk making lofty promises that either end up being premature or don’t come true at all, such as a 2016 promise to have a Tesla drive itself across the U.S. by the end of 2017, and multiple predictions for Model 3 production numbers that the company did not reach.”
“We’ll see as many as we can make, for at least three to four years,” he told analysts and investors on a conference call in January.
Cities in middle America and along the eastern seaboard could be already lobbying Tesla hard to bring jobs to their economies. Beyond bringing a welcome pile of American manufacturing jobs to the fore, Tesla's two new assembly facilities mark a turning point for the automaker's production goals. It has been expanding production aggressively since introducing the mass-market, relatively affordable Model 3 EV. With the new, similarly attainable Model Y crossover coming (think of it as a Model 3 SUV), Tesla is going to be churning out a lot more cars.
Musk didn’t provide further information in the tweets. However, a source with knowledge of the talks said Nashville is on a shortlist of contenders.
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Tennessee is already shaping up to be a hub of electric vehicle production. , Tenn. and turn it into the company’s North American base for manufacturing electric vehicles. Electric vehicle production at the Tennessee site will begin in 2022, VW said at the time. Meanwhile, Nissan has been producing the Nissan Leaf in Smyrna since 2013.
Tesla assembles its Model S, Model X and Model 3 vehicles in Fremont, Calif. at a factory that was once home to GM and Toyota’s New United Motor Manufacturing Inc (NUMMI) operation. Tesla acquired the factory in 2010. The first Model S was produced at the factory in June 2012.
Musk called the planned factory the “Cybertruck Gigafactory,” keeping in line with Tesla’s recent pattern of calling pretty much everything a “gigafactory.”
Musk also recently announced that Tesla will be referring to its factories as “Giga (area),” rather than the previous “gigafactory 1, 2, 3” nomenclature. This means once a location is picked, the Cybertruck Gigafactory will likely be named after the state it’s in.
Tesla turned its efforts to battery production and in June 2014 broke ground on its . The massive structure, which has surpassed. 1.9 million square feet, is where Tesla produces battery packs and electric motors for its Model 3 vehicles. The company has a joint venture with Panasonic, which is making the lithium-ion cells. Tesla also has a “gigafactory 2” in Buffalo, New York where it’s producing solar cells and modules.
In 2018, Tesla struck a deal with the Chinese government to build a factory in Shanghai, a milestone for Musk, who has long viewed China as a crucial market. The China factory started producing the Model 3 late last year. The first deliveries began in early January.
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The adventurously styled, innovative Tesla Cybertruck electric pickup truck needs to be built someplace, and Elon Musk has declared that place will be in the center of America. Truck country. Tesla is taking the pickup fight to their door, and that of emerging electric truckmaker Rivian, which is based in the Detroit area near Ford, Chevy, and Ram. Where will these new Tesla facilities end up? Keep your eyes glued to Musk's twitter feed.