• by Montgomery Miller
•  January 15th, 2021

Austin’s New Tesla Factory

Last year at this time we were talking about Tesla’s ongoing advances in battery technology…the million-mile battery so to speak. Since then, big announcements from Tesla have given Austinites some exciting news to digest.

While Tesla stock hit new records in 2020, Tesla delivered 499,550 vehicles, slightly missing its own estimate of 500,000 vehicles. The company said it delivered 180,570 electric vehicles in the fourth quarter, beating its previous record as well as Wall Street expectations, despite the global pandemic.

In July, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the company would build its next US factory in Austin, Texas, finalizing a location to build the upcoming Cybertruck. Construction work is “already underway,” Musk said at the time.

According to Musk, the new factory in Texas, “will be open to the public,” and there will be a boardwalk and hiking and biking trails. “It’s going to basically be an ecological paradise. Birds in the trees, butterflies, fish in the stream,” he said.

In addition to the Cybertruck, Model Ys and Model 3s destined for the East Coast, as well as the Tesla Semi, will be built at the Austin location, Musk indicated.

The 2,100 acre site, located east of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, will be home to Tesla’s fourth US factory where up to 5,000 employees will earn an average salary of $47,147. The company says it will invest at least $1 billion in the 4 to 5 million square foot facility.

Aside from the obvious economic benefit the new Tesla factory will bring to Austin, the decision by Elon Musk to personally move here may offer local Tesla owners an extra bit of confidence that support for their EV is closer and more secure than ever. It’s also likely that the number of charging stations in Austin and across Texas, will increase substantially to better support overall growth in the EV market, driven primarily by Tesla.

With more EVs hitting the road, and Tesla leading the way, large fleets will likely integrate more EVs. Large capacity grid storage will help to reduce the cost of energy during daytime hours as EV charging begins to soak up more kilowatt-hours. Telsa continues, in it’s partnership with Panasonic, to lead the industry in research and development of high-capacity energy storage supported by manufacturing efficiencies.

If your Tesla is ever in an accident, you should always bring it to a Tesla Approved Body Shop. In fact, any modern vehicle using advanced alloys and sophisticated electronic sensors, should always be repaired and restored back to original factory specifications by an I-CAR Gold Class Certified body shop with the specialized equipment, training and experience to make those repairs correctly.