Tesla's Next Gigafactory to Land in Mexico: Elon Musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the company's newest Gigafactory location at the company's recent Investor Day event, set to build the company's next-generation vehicle. The North American factory will be built in the northeastern state of Nuevo León, as announced after reports pointed to the region for months.

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

“Yeah, we’ll have a, you know obviously have a grand opening and groundbreaking and what not but we’re excited to announce that the next Tesla Gigafactory will be in Mexico near Monterrey,” Musk said before the Investor Day Q&A session. “So, super excited about it.”

The news came after Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and other officials had already reported on Tesla's plans to build the factory prior to Investor Day. According to one Mexican government official, Tesla plans to invest $5 billion for the development of the ultra-large new factory outside of Monterrey, Reuters reports.

Gigafactory Mexico Monterrey! Sounds cool! @elonmusk 🇲🇽 😎 pic.twitter.com/tWXJItAGzx

— Endrina Pavlić (@EPavlic) March 2, 2023

Elon Musk’s announcement was accompanied by a concept image of Gigafactory Mexico. The theme of Giga Mexico appears to follow the same design pattern as other Tesla Gigafactories.

Last year, Musk also visited officials in Monterrey and other parts of Nuevo León, suggesting that the company could be looking to the region for its next factory.

Musk also cleared any doubts in the minds of investors at the Giga Texas event, stating that Giga Mexico will significantly supplement Tesla’s global production. Even with the new Gigafactory, the automaker's leaders assured shareholders that Tesla doesn't plan to shift any production load away from its factories in Fremont, California or Austin, Texas.

“To be clear, this is not moving output from anywhere to anywhere, it’s simply about expanding total global output,” Musk stated.

If we closely look at the Gigafactory Mexico concept design image on Tesla's website, we can see an easily-visible easter egg — the tagline saying “Manufacturing Next-Gen Vehicle.” This could be referring to a highly-anticipated Tesla hatchback that's smaller and more affordable.

In 2020, when Tesla started preparing to build Giga Berlin, Musk hinted that a new Tesla Design Center would be made at this location, with the primary task of creating the affordable Tesla hatchback EV.

Tesla’s shares fell following the event, as many analysts and shareholders expressed hopes for more specific details about a new car design. At the time of writing just after the event, Tesla was trading at $190 — or slightly lower than the previous day’s close of $191.30.

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Written by: Iqtidar Ali. An earlier version of this article was originally published on Tesla Oracle.