Tesla Gigafactory: News, Updates, and Confirmed Expansion

When Tesla Motors (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk first described the Tesla Gigafactory, he noted that the Tesla Gigafactory is poised, by 2020, to reach full capacity and produce more lithium ion batteries annually than were produced worldwide in 2013. Now, it appears to be getting even bigger.

Above: Tesla CEO Elon Musk at Gigafactory site; Source: Steve Jurvetson / Flickr

Yes... significant expansion and growth have been confirmed relative to the Tesla Gigafactory. How so? During an informative presentation about the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, Dean Haymore, from Story County Commission, said that Tesla started with 1,000 acres at the site, and just closed on 1,200 acres more (just recently) and now wants another 350 acres -- this new purchase would more than double Tesla’s land at the site. 

Tesla originally planned for a 10 million square-foot factory but the Story County official said that if all construction is completed, the total square footage would be 24 million square-feet instead of the 10 million originally planned. Check out the video below for context and new/fascinating Tesla Gigafactory highlights. 

Source, Youtube: Ron Bell; Note: this video (above) is an edited version of Haymore's longer presentation and focuses only on Haymore's remarks related to the Tesla Gigafactory. 

Some other noteworthy points from this presentation -- Panasonic is planning to bring 14 other companies to the Gigafactory. And, Tesla is planning to have its line up and running by March (with 300 workers working 5 shifts).

It's certainly impressive to hear the growth and progress being made by Tesla. Yet, based on the initial demand for Tesla Energy's stationary battery storage offerings, it's also not a surprise that the Gigafactory is doubling in size. During the Q1 Earnings conference call, Musk said that Tesla already, in its first week, had 38,000 reservations for their Powerwall home battery (noting that many reservations were for multiple units). And, Tesla was also “triaging requests” for another 2,500 of their larger Powerpack utility battery reservations. Musk explained, "We could have the entire [Gigafactory] battery plant just do stationary storage.”