Gigafactory | Tesla Gigafactory Tesla Motors February 26, 2014 As we at Tesla reach for our goal of producing a mass market electric car in approximately three years, we have an opportunity to leverage our projected demand for lithium ion batteries to reduce their cost faster than previously thought possible. In cooperation with strategic battery manufacturing partners, we’re planning to build a large scale factory that will allow us to achieve economies of scale and minimize costs through innovative manufacturing, reduction of logistics waste, optimization of co-located processes and reduced overhead. The Gigafactory is designed to reduce cell costs much faster than the status quo and, by 2020, produce more lithium ion batteries annually than were produced worldwide in 2013. By the end of the first year of volume production of our mass market vehicle, we expect the Gigafactory will have driven down the per kWh cost of our battery pack by more than 30 percent. Here are some details about what the Gigafactory will look like. Inside the Gigafactory That Will Decide Tesla’s Fate Inside the Gigafactory That Will Decide Tesla’s Fate Elon Musk’s enormous, $5 billion factory is seriously ramping up production.

By Dana Hull | May 6, 2016 To get to Tesla’s Gigafactory, you drive east from Reno, Nevada, turn into a sprawling industrial center, and make a left on Electric Avenue. The high desert landscape dwarfs everything, even the vast white building with the red stripe along the top. As you reach the gate with the security guard, the breadth of Tesla’s ambitions becomes clear. Even the name itself suggests more to come: Gigafactory 1. The lobby décor is classic Tesla: large windows, high ceilings, gleaming white floors, black leather chairs. One of the Powerwall home batteries made at the factory hangs like a piece of modern art. Guests receive hard hats, reflective vests, and safety glasses along with the complimentary bottled water and coffee. The lobby of Tesla’s Gigafactory east of Reno, Nevada, features the chassis of a Model X and S and the model of a Supercharger. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg The $5 billion Gigafactory was born of necessity. Tesla needs a hell of a lot of batteries, for both the forthcoming mass-market Model 3 sedan and the Tesla Energy product line. The timeline for getting those batteries made just became much shorter, too.

On Wednesday, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk stunned investors by announcing a sped-up production schedule that calls for a half-million electric vehicles per year by 2018, not the previously stated goal of 2020. For a company that delivered just 50,658 vehicles in 2015, the ramp looks like a hockey stick. Tesla has worked with Panasonic to collapse the supply chain and drive down costs. Battery production—all the way down to the cell level—will happen in one facility. Conference rooms are named after chemical elements that are key parts of the battery supply chain, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, aluminum, and silicon. Powerwall batteries for the home and the larger Powerpack for commercial users are already made at the Gigafactory. Eventually battery packs for the Model 3 will be made there as well and then shipped by rail to Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California. About 350 Tesla employees currently work inside the facility. “We’ve accelerated some of our plans there,” Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel said of the Gigafactory during Wednesday’s earnings call.

“And we’re still on track to have first cell production starting at the end of this year so that we’ll be able to ramp up to match the Model 3 schedule as well.” The place remains a very active construction site, filled with contractors, cranes, and pickup trucks. The factory is being built in sections and is now only 14 percent complete. Ninety percent of the interior space is under construction. A lot will change in the coming months. Interior rooms are being prepared to handle raw materials. Tesla Energy products are produced on what’s called the “pod line.” It has the startup vibe: rows of desks, plenty of whiteboards. The completed structure will have a footprint of 5.8 million square feet, roughly the size of 100 football fields. Inside, however, will be at least twice as much floor space because some sections will stand four stories tall. Tesla has also purchased land around the site for potential expansion. Eventually the entire roof will be filled with fixed-tilt solar panels.

Tesla says that the Gigafactory is designed to reduce battery costs by at least 30 percent, with capacity to produce 35 gigawatt-hours of battery cells and 50 gigawatt-hours of battery packs per year. (“Giga” is a unit of measurement that represents billions: 1 GWh is the equivalent of consuming, or generating, 1 billion watts for one hour.) But that’s not the upper bound, and Straubel said the Gigafactory will be able to exceed those targets even before it expands. “We won’t need to rob from Tesla Energy plans in order to meet the Model 3 schedule,” he told investors on Wednesday. “We definitely have a way to solve both.” The Gigafactory is a secure facility. Visitors with appointments must check in at the front gate. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg When complete, the Gigafactory will have a footprint of 5.8 million square feet. It is being built in sections, so battery production will begin before the entire building is finished.

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg The Tesla Gigafactory Is Big; Really, Really Big--This Big, In Fact The Tesla Gigafactory Is Big; Really, Really Big--This Big, In Fact Email This Page To (separate emails with commas) Message (optional) Your email was sent successfully. Close Enlarge Photo Photos can be deceptive, as any online-dating aficionado will tell you. So it's hard to tell from photographs just how large the lithium-ion cell gigafactory in Nevada that's being built by electric car-maker Tesla Motors will really be. DON'T MISS: Tesla Gigafactory For Electric-Car Batteries: Site Work Continues (Photos) You need some other very large things to compare it to. And that's exactly what EV Obsession has provided, in a post from last September that we'd missed until now. Tesla battery gigafactory site, outside Reno, Nevada, Jan 6, 2015 [photo: Bob Tregilus] Enlarge Photo The comparison at the top of this article shows that the Tesla gigafactory is almost the size of Boeing's largest jetliner assembly plant. The post has another one, too.

It shows the length of the factory compared to the height of the tallest man-made structures in the world. (Hint: It's larger.) ALSO SEE: Panasonic To Invest Hundreds Of Millions In Tesla Gigafactory To Start (Oct 2014) When we published photos earlier this week showing the latest state of construction at the gigafactory site, the dominant feature was a lot of sandy earth. With the gigafactory site on a plane with mountains to the north, it's not easy to see just how large the footprint is. Rendering of Tesla battery gigafactory outside Reno, Nevada, Sep 2014 Enlarge Photo And the company's computer rendering of the finished factory, with its roof covered in solar panels, doesn't add a lot to the size context--aside from looking really, really big. The gigafactory will assemble both lithium-ion cells and entire battery packs for the company's next electric-vehicle line, the Tesla Model 3, which is targeted for a price of $35,000 and a range of 200 miles.

MORE: Tesla's Battery Gigafactory May Achieve Nirvana: $100 Per Kilowatt-Hour, Report Says To put the Model 3 into production, Tesla must complete the gigafactory and get it up to volume production of cells and packs. That's currently targeted for late 2017, although Tesla has been challenged in meeting various initial target dates for cars and other projects in the past.

_______________________________________________ The Gigafactory that will make or break Tesla | Daily Mail Online The Gigafactory that will make or break Tesla: As 198,000 people preorder Elon Musk's new car, drone footage reveals the world's biggest building where its batteries will be made $5 billion structure in Reno, Nevada will produce 500,000 lithium ion batteries annually to meet demand Footage shows little progress on exterior of the building, but construction has taken place around the plant 'It will produce more lithium ion batteries than all other factories in the world combined,' Elon Musk revealed The factory will be used to produce batteries for products including Tesla Model 3 car, unveiled yesterday Tesla Gigafactory Is HUGE (2 Graphics Add Perspective) | CleanTechnica Tesla Gigafactory Is HUGE (2 Graphics Add Perspective) EV Obsession . Most of us are content to simply know that the Tesla Gigafactory is going to be big… huge, even. How huge? It hadn’t crossed my mind to even put it in perspective. No matter how big it is, the size is going to be fairly incomprehensible to me.

However, everything is better with a bit of perspective, and a Tesla investor and redditor recently decided to add a bit of perspective with a graphic comparing the Gigafactory to a bunch of large towers an such. With feedback from members of the reddit community, he then had a better idea for how to put the Gigafactory into perspective, so he created another graphic comparing it to other large things… and a banana. Both graphics are below (sources here and here , respectively). If you want to join in the reddit discussions, they are here and here . Though, be forewarned: a lot of them are jokes, and a lot of them ones in the second link are jokes about the banana in the graphic… or other bananas. As far as the methodology, the creator of these, jonjiv shared the following: Methodology: So we know from various sources that: The Gigafactory might look like this It will be 1-2 stories tall. With such huge ranges, it’s hard to nail down the what actual dimensions of the factory will be, but I didn’t want to make multiple images.

So what is pictured could be either a 5M sq ft factory with one floor or a 10M sq ft factory with two floors. I assumed a 1:2.5 dimension ratio which is shown in the recent renderings. I got a 3535 ft (1077 m) x 1414 ft (431 m) footprint using the knowns above. I fudged the length in the graphic a little to 1100 m to account for the beveled corners. The graphic is derivative of this one I found on Wikipedia, hence the “metres,” even though I’m American 🙂 Thanks to jonjiv! Originally published on EV Obsession . Reproduced with permission. Buy a cool T-shirt or mug in the CleanTechnica store ! Tags: reddit , Tesla Gigafactory , Tesla Motors About the Author Zachary Shahan is tryin' to help society help itself (and other species) one letter at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor.

Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of EV Obsession , Gas2 , Solar Love , Planetsave , or Bikocity ; or as president of Important Media . Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, energy storage, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media: ZacharyShahan.com . Zach has long-term investments in TSLA, FSLR, SPWR, SEDG, & ABB. After years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in these companies and feels like they are good companies to invest in. Related Posts The banana really helped me put this in perspective, thanks! Bob_Wallace How about a comparison with some of other man made energy projects? Kemmerer mine’s “Big Pit”–one of three at the complex–was begun in 1971 and is the largest open pit coal mine in the United States. It measures 5,000 feet long, 4,000 feet wide and 1,000 feet deep Tesla battery factory. Elon, what a wimp.

Jouni Valkonen Why this is compared to Boeing’s facility? Tesla’s Fremont car factory is 100 000 m² larger than Boeing’s facility. With 510 000 m² foot-print, Tesla’s Fremont factory is the second largest building in the world. And Boeing’s Everet facility is only the third largest. Curiously, the tulip boom has not gone anywhere as the largest building in the world is a flower shop in Netherlands! Kevin Lu The boeing is larger than Tesla in terms of volume, but Tesla have a larger foot print Sam Rai the entire roof of the factory will be covered with solar panels. I’m betting it’s gonna be pretty shiny to look at from space Bob_Wallace the point of solar panels is to absorb as much visible light as possible. Wayne Williamson This was my understanding also. Yesterday I read part of the press release and it states that Tesla agrees to buy x amount of electricity per year from the local utility. Did anyone else see this…. JamesWimberley The height graphic makes no sense. It’s untuftey.

My coinage: tuftey, used of a graphic data representation: smart, informative, worthy of Edward Tufte. Untuftey: the converse. Kevin Lu In the graphic it is actually the length and width of the factory, not the height. The height is only 2 stories Mark Why is it so big? What actually would be inside it that it needs all that space? I can imagine that trucks or trains would pull up, unload lithium, some robot machine would mould that into little battery shapes, they would then be combined into tesla car batteries by another robot then out the door. Could be done in a factory the size of a Target store? Simplistic yes but I am trying to understand what all the space and people would be needed for. Johnny Le I think the factory will process all the raw materials as well. Elon has been talking to mining companies. The point is to eliminate as many middlemen as possible and the rest will be right inside the gigafactory. Mark The factory will start with the processing of raw materials, of that create parts of batteries, of the parts create batteries, and of the batteries create battery packs. It is actually four factories under one roof just for the battery pack production.

In addition you will have a “factory” for the recycling of old battery packs. Mint They’re planning to produce 50GWh of battery packs per year. At 300 Wh/kg, that’s almost 500 tons/day of battery cell flow (plus everything needed to make packs, but I’ll ignore that for now). Let’s say there’s 10 major steps in manufacturing, and each takes 10 hours of processes (like cleaning, baking, etc). That means ~2000 tons of product in the pipeline. A lot of battery manufacturing involves thin films, eventually being rolled up into cells with electrolyte added. So think of a machine rolling out 250 strips of tape at once, 10 layers wide (say 5cm wide tape with 5cm space between parallel strips), and 25 layers stacked on top of one another. If the tape is 0.2mm thick, and 1g/cm3 density without electrolyte, such a configuration is only 2kg of product per m2. So if 1000 tons of the aforementioned pipeline (i.e.

half of it) is in such a configuration, you need 500,000 m2 for these tape feeds, and a bunch of machinery around that. You also need lots of space around the machines for walking and servicing, and now you’re up to a couple million square meters. Then you have the rest of the pipeline. So 5-10 million square feet is quite reasonable, IMO. Mark Thank you for that. Jouni Valkonen Tesla’s car factory in California is as big if not bigger. Tesla’s car factory is the second largest building in the world by footprint. Will E compare it with oil rigs and supertankers. gas pipe lines and devastated tarsand fields open coal mines. then you will see giga factory is small and we need more of them. but it is a good start. Vensonata Tesla's First Gigafactory Site Will Break Ground Next Month Tesla's First Gigafactory Site Will Break Ground Next Month {{article.article.images.featured.caption}} Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Full Bio The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. Loading ... Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe $5 billion gigafactory project is one of the biggest prizes in the economic development world - and it looks like the company is wasting no time getting started. Speaking with analysts on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company will break ground in June on the first of at least two gigafactory locations, and it may launch the second one shortly afterward. The process is moving faster than a speeding Tesla. Musk only announced plans for the project at the end of February, meaning the public portion of the plant site (or sites) search will have taken about four months. He did not say which states have been selected as the first and second sites. But he disclosed California may be back in the running to get a gigafactory site. California did not make Tesla's original list of four Southwest states -- Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas -- that the company was considering for the big battery plant, which promises to create 6,500 jobs.

Originally, Tesla officials felt that the difficulties in getting permits for new construction, what manufacturers call a "green field site," would take too long in California, which is known for strict environmental regulations. However, Musk acknowledged that California Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers are pushing to make it possible for Tesla to select the state for a gigaplant site, and the company has said conversations are underway. Reports say that Tesla has recently bought up a number of parcels of land in California, although it might be used for other purposes rather than as a gigafactory site. The massive battery plant, whose structure alone would cost $2 billion, would build about 500,000 lithium-ion batteries a year by 2020. That's more than the number of lithium-ion batteries produced by all the automotive suppliers in the world last year. Battery investment is expected to raise the price tag by another $3 billion. Curbing Cars: America’s Independence From The Auto Industry investigates why a growing number of Americans are giving up their cars. This illuminating account of our changing automotive habits is available now for download. Tesla has long contended that the limited supply of batteries for its cars has kept it from expanding faster.

So, by producing batteries himself, Musk is signaling that he wants to be in control of Tesla's fate. In the past week, Musk disclosed that Tesla will get started on two gigafactory sites, so that it isn't slowed down if delays take place in the construction process. The company reaffirmed that on Wednesday in a letter to shareholders that accompanied its first quarter results. "We're going to move forward breaking ground with multiple sites," Musk said. One of the reasons why Tesla wants to proceed on at least two fronts is that battery development is so expensive. If the battery itself were delayed, the cost could be far more than what Tesla might spend to get the gigafactory up and running. Nevada is considered by many economic development experts to be a leading site for one of the factories, with the other three original states pushing to get a location, as well. On Wednesday, Musk announced that Tesla has signed a letter of intent with to be a supplier for the gigaplant, and a formal agreement is expected by the end of the year. The two companies have established teams to explore battery production. Musk also said that Tesla has reached out directly to mining companies that would provide materials such as nickel and cobalt for the costly batteries.

"They were happy to hear from us," Musk said. He said he was "highly confident" Tesla would achieve its goal of reducing battery cost by 30 percent per kilowatt hour. "As we explored the cost structure and the supply chain, we found that there's really a lot of opportunity for innovation and for cost reduction," Musk said. The company is also talking to other suppliers about being involved in the project, hoping to complement Panasonic's capability. Company officials said it was "premature" to discuss other suppliers that could be involved, however. Will The Tesla Gigafactory Turn On Early? | CleanTechnica Will The Tesla Gigafactory Turn On Early? February 21st, 2015 by Zachary Shahan Update: If you’re not familiar with it, familiarize yourself with Hofstadter’s law . It’s no secret — Tesla doesn’t have a history of hitting its timelines. It’s also no secret that construction projects often run behind schedule. So, it would be quite idealistic to think Tesla would finish its (first) Gigafactory on time, let alone ahead of schedule.

However, a Tesla official has reportedly said that it will be done ahead of time and operations will actually begin in 2016 . Wow! That would be awesome. But let’s also remember that only about $53 million of the projected $5 billion that is going into this factory seems to have been spent to date… so, we’re still at the early stages, and there’s a lot of room for things to go wrong. Nonetheless, my hopes have been raised. Here are some more deets from an EV Obsession repost. The Tesla Gigafactory will reportedly start operations in 2016, rather than 2017 — a bit early. A Tesla official supposedly made such a statement in Japan on Friday. The Gigafactory has been ahead of schedule at least since its site in Nevada was determined, but whether that would eventually translate into the Gigafactory being done ahead of schedule has always been questionable… and despite reports of the recent statement from a Tesla official, this is still very much questionable. I think almost everyone knows that construction projects often go over schedule and over budget, and there’s plenty of time for things to go wrong and Tesla to get behind schedule.

Nonetheless, a statement that it will be done in 2016 sounds good! According to Nikkei , “The plant’s launch will be accelerated to bring down production costs through economies of scale, said Kurt Kelty, who oversees battery technologies at Tesla.” Based on the limited statements from Tesla CEO and Product Architect Elon Musk and crew in the recent quarterly conference call, it didn’t seem the Tesla Model 3 would be done early, however. So, Tesla will likely need some other revenue streams to support initial production and operations. As I reported just yesterday, Elon stated on the conference call that Tesla would be unveiling a home battery storage product in a month or two. Tesla is also bidding on grid storage projects, and will be producing a large number of Model S and Model X vehicles by 2016, so hopefully it won’t run into a supply glut before the Model 3 is ready. All in all, everything seems to be falling into place as planned. Buy a cool T-shirt or mug in the CleanTechnica store ! Tags: Tesla Gigafactory , Tesla Motors , Tesla quarterly reports About the Author Zachary Shahan is tryin' to help society help itself (and other species) one letter at a time.

He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of EV Obsession , Gas2 , Solar Love , Planetsave , or Bikocity ; or as president of Important Media . Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, energy storage, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media: ZacharyShahan.com . Zach has long-term investments in TSLA, SCTY, FSLR, SPWR, SEDG, & ABB. After years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in these companies and feels like they are good companies to invest in. Related Posts He may single handedly save the entire biosphere, incredible, exceptional, wonderful. NRG4All Has the chemistry been decided on for the Gigafactory batteries? Can we expect any improvement over the batteries currently being used? Bobby Llithium is a commodity and operations to produce it have been growing, buying a production company isn’t needed at all.

Jason hm Their is benefit to sourcing material components outside the traditional commodity market..Mining and refining have enormous initial capital expenditures having a steady reliable sourced consumer has a lot appeal. The value of a steady customer often outweighs the benefit short profits in an open market volatile market. Direct relationships also eliminate Third,fourth and fith parties… Look at Tesla relationship with Panasonic. Panasonic is sacrificing profit per unit but in return they reliable loyal high volume customer that is growing.. Tesla and Panasonic have removed themselves from the 18650 open market and both companies are winning because of it. Mmining and or refinery companies could benefit in a similar way. Martin Well one way of getting Lithium is by way of geothermal operations, from what I have read. That would be a win, win win, getting the Lithium, getting base load power and be good for the planet! Bob_Wallace The water that’s coming up from the Salton Sea area geothermal wells is high in lithium content. There’s a company trying to get into the business of extracting commercial levels of lithium from the geothermal plant outflows. Michael G The building shell is only part of the issue.

The equipment installation is expected to take a full year as well and then 4 years to ramp up production and sales to the full 500K. A modern factory is a complex operation and they have to work out the flow and timings of everything. In anything this complex and new, there are inevitable glitches. Here is a timeline from Tesla from their document: Michael G Thanks for the link. Lots of other good links on that page like “The Planning Fallacy” My own personal relevant story: 6 of us were working on a hardware-software project and our manager asked us for time estimates. We all estimated about a month and then tripled it before giving it to the manager. He doubled that to 6 months and gave it to the director who in turn doubled it to a year. Us worker bees were all feeling happy wondering what we were going to do with all our free time and how great it would feel to get a project in early for once. Any experienced engineer knows what happened. We barely made the year estimate – and only with 80-hour weeks and sleeping on the lab floor when we were too tired to drive home. Murphy was an optimist.

Russell “Tesla is also bidding on grid storage projects,” This could be pretty significant does anyone have details? The could make a large profit margin, perhaps even greater than by putting their batteries in their cars if their price per kWH is right. No, seems to all be locked away behind closed doors. But maybe an insider here wants to leak some info 😀 But JB said that they were bidding on all of them, or something along those lines. Philip W By 2020 Tesla wants to produce 35GWh of batteries and assemble 50GWh of battery packs. Using 85kWh battery packs that would be enough for 588235 Model S. But since a lot of those battery packs are for the upcoming Model 3 (smaller battery), they can probably equip a lot more cars than that. So they should have plenty of capacity to dedicate to grid storage. Or maybe I’m all wrong and demand will be so strong, that they need to put all their capcity towards cars. The next few years will be interesting for sure… 🙂 Martin Wondering when the building(shell) will be completed, lock up stage in construction terms? What year/ month for that stage?

Matt With a building that size there are many paths to completion. If willing to add a temporary wall could close off 1/4, 1/3 of the building and finish its inside so they could begin. I would think they would go for the corp/biz storage first, since there is more money (demand, backup, etc) there than in home. There are a lot of schedules in a project this size. Also did the $5b include the solar panels and wind farm in the background? grendal If it can be done then Tesla will do it. There will be a lengthy ramp up so I expect them to start small and sell those batteries at a higher price. I also expect that Tesla will introduce upgraded battery packs for the Model S and Model X before we see a production Model 3 hit the road. That way they can sell those early batteries for a higher price point to people that can afford it. Early Battery Adopters. Good points. vensonata There is also the possibility of “partial operation” early. It would be uneconomical to have infrastructure of that size and cost doing nothing while interest and payments are being demanded. Tesla needs to move like their hair was on fire.

The home battery packs are child’s play for their engineers. They make a higher margin on simple battery packs than the cars. So I can see ten percent of floor space pumping out home battery packs six months from now. Lets pray that they price them sensibly rather than like the German Bosch and Sony battery packs at over $1000kwh! By the way, Sony is probably the earliest developer of the lithium “olivine” battery (back in the 90’s). They claim 8000 cycles at 100% discharge on their home battery. It is available in Germany but is about $13,000 for 10 kwh pack. Ridiculous. Those prices just can’t be justified with U.S. grid prices. Thanks. Interesting info there I didn’t know! Bobby Musk is all about iteration. Expect 1/3rd of the plant to get finished out, then the lessons learned applied to the next 2/3rds.

Pts I think as long as tesla doesn’t run into a valuation problem or spending to much issues and gets the model 3 out on time( crustal), then between 2020-2023 tesla will be building between 1 and 2 more gigafactories to meet car demand( theirs and other manufacturers), residential storage demand and grid scale. One other crucial step for the batteries and cars will be moving to solid state li- ion batteries for greater range/ energy density, which would mean greater range from a smaller battery pack and less weight and size for battery cooling/ controls. Battery system cost/ size/ weight all way down. Elon Musk indicates Gigafactory is start of many FacebookEmail Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest Elon Musk indicates Gigafactory is start of many Tesla CEO Elon Musk says there will be more battery-producing "Gigafactories" but they won't necessarily be built by Tesla. Post to Facebook Elon Musk indicates Gigafactory is start of many Tesla CEO Elon Musk says there will be more battery-producing "Gigafactories" but they won't necessarily be built by Tesla. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address.

Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 2 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Elon Musk indicates Gigafactory is start of many Jason Hidalgo, The Reno Gazette-Journal 7:22 p.m. ET May 1, 2015 CLOSE x Share Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveils Powerwall, a device that stores energy absorbed by solar panels, for use when the sun is down. The technology is based on the electric batteries that run Teslas. Laura Mandaro reports. Elon Musk introducing solar energy home-storage units at an event in Hawthorne, Calif. Thursday April 30, 2015. (Photo: Associated Press) Is Tesla Motors' battery plant east of Reno, Nev. going to be called "Gigafactory 1?" That's what Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk called the facility during Thursday's Tesla Energy live event , complete with an onscreen image of the factory with the words "Gigafactory 1." Tesla's new Powerwall and Tesla Energy line of storage batteries may have gotten top billing during the live event in Hawthorne, Calif.

But Nevada's $5 billion Gigafactory got some love as well, including a bit of fawning from a proud Musk. For starters, thinking of the Gigafactory — which is currently undergoing construction — as just a building with equipment is the wrong approach, according to Musk. "The way we're approaching the Gigafactory is really like a product," Musk said. "What we're designing is a giant machine." A giant machine that doesn't happen to move but is still a machine nonetheless, according to the Tesla CEO. It's also a machine that will be integral to Tesla's future plans and viability as a company. In addition to lowering battery costs and serving as the linchpin in Tesla's goal to build 500,000 electric cars per year, the Gigafactory also will enable Tesla to scale up production of its Tesla Energy home, commercial and utility batteries by 2016. "Initially, the ramp up will be slow because (the batteries) are being made in the Fremont factory," Musk said.

"But next year, the transition will be much higher as we transition to the Gigafactory in Nevada." The fact that Musk called the battery plant "Gigafactory 1" also implies that there will be more Gigafactories in the future. The surprise, however, is that some of those factories don't have to necessarily be built by Tesla, according to Musk. Instead, the company will continue its policy of open sourcing its technology so others can use it. "There will need to be many Gigafactories in the future," Musk said. "Many companies will build Gigafactory-class plants of their own." 60 CONNECT TWEET 10 LINKEDIN 2 COMMENTEMAILMORE Read or Share this story: NEVER MISS OUT Managing Your Money Master your money with the latest business and investment news, articles and tips from financial experts each Friday. THANKS FOR SIGNING UP FOR THE Managing Your Money NEWSLETTER We're sorry. Sign up for more Newsletters TESLA TIMELINE: BUILDING A GIGAFACTORY How do you build a $5 billion battery plant? One step at a time, of course.

Here's a timeline of construction activity at Tesla Motors' gigafactory site just east of Reno, Nev., based on permit data. 2014 CLEAR AND GRUB Rolling start Brush and vegetation is cleared and the ground is prepped at the potential gigafactory site at Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center. Permits show that initial work is started on May 19, 2014 by F & P Construction of Reno. Interestingly, Tesla had yet to make an official announcement at the time and Nevada was still competing with other states for the lithium-ion battery plant. PAD CREATION Site and pad preparation Sparks-based Granite Construction starts doing pad work at the site on June 26, 2014. Construction of 12 temporary work trailers also begins. RETENTION BASIN Gopher Construction Inc. of Fernley starts work on a retention basin on July 14, 2014. GIGAFACTORY IS OFFICIAL Tesla picks Nevada On Sept. 4, Gov. Brian Sandoval and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk hold a press conference at Carson City to officially announce Nevada's selection as the site for the Gigafactory.

On the same day, Granite Construction starts work on Stormwater Pollution Prevention Pond (SWPPP) site retention ponds at the gigafactory site. Construction cost for the ponds are estimated to be $500,000. MORE WORK TRAILERS Granite Construction starts building temporary job site trailers with a target date of March 18. TEMPORARY POWER: PHASE 1 Going electric Vasko Electric, Inc. of Sacramento works on the first phase of a temporary power project for trailer city construction at a cost of about $95,000. COMMERCIAL COACH Sparks-based Quick Space starts commercial coach installation. CONCRETE Getting in the mix Largo Concrete places more than 60,000 cubic yards of concrete from American Ready Mix. It is the largest amount of concrete delivered to the site at this point. FOUNDATION Big-ticket item W.G. Yates & Sons Construction of Philadelphia begins work on the foundation with a target completion date of April 27. The estimated cost for building the foundation is $16 million. TEMPORARY POWER: PHASE II More power Second phase of temporary power project for trailer city construction starts at a cost of $152,000.

TEMPORARY TRAILERS Worker space Modular Space Corp. of Berwyn, Pa. begins work on temporary construction trailers for Campbell, Calif.-based Largo Concrete. TEMPORARY POWER: PHASE III Power trip Rosendin Electric of San Jose, Calif., starts work on phase three of a temporary power project for trailer city construction at a cost of nearly $1.6 million. STEEL STRUCTURE Real steel Phoenix-based Schuff Steel Co. begins first phase of structural steel erection in late 2014 with a target end date of June 8. The steel structure is projected to cost $15 million. Modular Space starts building temporary work trailers. SHELL BUILDING Shell space Work begins in January 2015 on a 1,600-square-foot shell building at a cost of $200,000. Listed contractors and subcontractors are Miles Construction of Carson City, Bonanno Concrete of Reno and J&M Steel Solutions of Lehi, Utah. MASS GRADING Making the grade Granite Construction works on mass grading for the southeast, southwest and Milan sites at the gigafactory compound. Grading is expected to be done by August.

H2O STORAGE New water tank Farr Construction Corp. is slated in March to start installation of a 1.5 million gallon welded steel water tank. The project is estimated to cost $600,000. STEEL STRUCTURE Structural steel modification Schuff Steel Co. starts modifying the initial steel structure of the gigafactory at a cost of $2.1 million. The project is still part of the first phase of structural steel installation for the plant. CONCRETE WORK Electric foundation Phoenix-based Suntec Concrete, Inc. begins work on the gigafactory's switchyard concrete for its main substation in April 2015. The concrete work will cost $585,000 according to permitting info. CONCRETE FLATWORK That's a lot of concrete Tesla contracts with Suntec once again, this time for a concrete flatwork project on the site. The project has an estimated cost of nearly $9.3 million and is expected to be finished by late October. MORE STEEL WORK Switchyard Structural Steel Storey County approves permitting for switchyard structural steel work. Project cost is estimated at $235,000 with Reno Iron Works chosen as the contractor.

Projected finish date is around mid-November 2015. FIRE AWAY Steel Fireproofing and Insulation Clayton Coating, Inc., of Scottsdale, Ariz., is tasked with fireproofing work on the gigafactory's steel structure. The $5 million job is expected to be finished by November. Tesla also contracted with Low Temp Insulations in Phoenix for an exterior walls package for the building. CHECKING OUT THE PLUMBING Electrical and plumbing June was a busy month for Tesla in 2015 with the company getting approved for five permits. The first one was for the electrical buildout of a switchyard to the tune of $2 million by Mississippi-based Edward Electric Service. Next was nearly $362,000 worth of under slab plumbing by Harder Mechanical Contractors of Portland, which also was contracted for $7 million worth of mechanical piping work. This was followed by temporary construction power and lighting work by Edwards Electric Service worth a little over $489,000. June permitting was capped off by an underslab grounding project by Utah-based Lightning Protection Systems to the tune of nearly $196,000.

PEDAL TO METAL Steel and mezzanine work Tesla Motors acquired its contractor license in July 2015. As such the company started listing itself as the contractor for all permits moving forward and stopped naming its subcontractors. This month also was another busy period for Tesla, which kicked off the month with a $2 million revision of the steel fireproofing for the second and fourth floors, likely by Arizona-based Clayton Coating, which did the steel fireproofing for the Gigafactory back in May. July saw the big ticket item for the summer with $12.92 million in mezzanine steel and concrete work started at the site as well. Also started during this month were two trestle projects totaling $1.2 million. INSIDE JOB Interiors and roofing August saw another big ticket item as well as the first major work on the Gigafactory's insides with a $10 million project for "architectural interiors" that's due to wrap up by February next year.

Also on tap for August was an $890,000 project for siphonic drains, $300,000 worth of electrical infrastructure work plus a fire command center and guard shack totalling $400,000. Work also kicked off on a $4.5 million project for the first phase of the Gigafactory's roof, which also has a February target date. DATA STATE OF MIND Data center and hardscapes Tesla diversifies its Gigafactory offerings by starting architectural work on a data center. Preliminary cost is slated at $50,000 but should increase once construction of the data center ramps up. Also started in September was a $350,000 project for temporary emergency power as well as $1 million worth of work on the first phase for civil hardscapes. RGJ research Tesla gets ready for its 'Gigafactory' by tripling its Nevada land Tesla gets ready for its 'Gigafactory' by tripling its Nevada land Share Save Tesla's battery-focused " Gigafactory " isn't even finished yet, but that isn't stopping the electric car maker from expanding its plant's territory.

The company just confirmed that it has nearly tripled its Nevada land purchases, adding 1,893 acres to the 1,000 it got back in 2014. Not that Tesla is planning to grow the factory itself in the near future. A spokesperson tells the Wall Street Journal that most of the new turf is a buffer space -- Tesla could put solar farms in this area to power the factory, but it won't add manufacturing capacity in the short term. Elon Musk and crew have the option of buying thousands of more acres, though, and there's a real chance that they'll need the extra headroom if the Model 3 and Powerwall take off.

Question: What will be made at the Tesla Gigafactory?
Answer: Batteries