Tesla Giga Mexico Appears to Be Readying Construction

Earlier this year, Tesla announced plans to build a new factory for its next-generation vehicle in the Mexican state of Nuevo León. Roughly five months after Tesla announced the plant, the upcoming Gigafactory now appears to be preparing to begin construction, according to the latest updates from one publication.

Above: A Tesla Supercharger (Image: Casey Murphy / EVANNEX).

Mexican publication Milenio reported this week that construction machinery had been spotted near the plot of land on which Tesla will build the new Gigafactory (via electrek). The equipment was seen on the highway leading to Saltillo in the neighboring state of Coahuila, at the junction of Anillo Periférico de Monterrey outside of the Santa Catarina municipality.

According to the report, cones and other traffic warning signals were placed around the site to encourage drivers to slow down near the area. It isn’t entirely clear what kind of work is being done, but it appears that the machinery is meant for excavation, seemingly constructing an exit to the Gigafactory location from the highway.

Last month, Nuevo León governor Samuel Alejandro García Sepúlveda said that Tesla had been approved for all of its construction permits, including those for the environment, energy and water. He went on to say that construction could begin “at any moment.” Although prior concerns about water use at the site almost seemed to change Tesla’s plans for building it in Nuevo León, the company detailed water conservation and reuse plans that were later accepted.

In June, Governor García Sepúlveda predicted that construction on the Monterrey plant would begin in “2 or 3 months.” While Tesla and officials initially said the plant would be expected to begin production in 2024, some outlets have more recently reported that the company likely won’t start building cars there until 2025.

Tesla announced the new site at its Investor Day event in March, and the automaker also said the factory location would be home to its next-generation vehicle platform. In his statements in June, García Sepúlveda also said that Tesla was finishing up its final designs for the next-generation vehicle, as well as the designs on necessary production lines, software and other things that will be needed to build the vehicle.

The new electric vehicle is expected to be a low-cost hatchback with hardware that’s still capable of running its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta systems — meaning that it will also someday be able to be used as a robotaxi, according to CEO Elon Musk.

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