Electric car maker Tesla has chosen to build its second U.S. auto factory in Austin, Texas.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk made the announcement during a quarterly financial call. The factory will assemble the Cybertruck, the Semi, the Model 3 and Model Y SUV.
The company plans to build on a 2,100-acre site in Travis County, near Austin, and will receive more than $60 million in tax breaks from the county and a local school district over the next decade, according to local news reports.
Tesla says the facility, which is expected to be between 4 million to 5 million square feet, will employ approximately 5,000 workers when fully operational. The company is expected to invest more than $1 billion in the facility.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a release, welcoming Tesla to the Lone Star state. “Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas will keep the Texas economy the strongest in the nation and will create thousands of jobs for hard-working Texans. I look forward to the tremendous benefits that Tesla’s investment will bring to Central Texas and the entire state.”
The facility will be Tesla’s fourth vehicle assembly plant, with plants currently in Fremont, California; Shanghai, China and Berlin, Germany.
Tesla unveiled its Cybertruck prototype in November 2019, pitching it as radically different from vehicles made by other OEMs. The Cybertruck is designed to have the utility of a truck and the performance of a sports car and will come in three variants. The vehicle is expected to have a 500+ mile range and a towing capacity of more than 14,000 pounds.
During the financial call, Tesla also reported that it was profitable for the most recent quarter, despite production challenges caused by Covid-19. It reported a net profit of $104 million for the quarter, with close to $6.0 billion in total revenue. It delivered 90,650 vehicles during the quarter.
