New Tesla site plan lays out 7.9 million-square-foot Gigafactory

A new site plan filed by electric carmaker Tesla provides another glimpse at the company's forthcoming $1.1 billion, 2,100-acre Gigafactory in southeast Travis County.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the plan outlines "a huge & spectacular facility," in a Facebook post. "Construction equipment (has) been hard at work for weeks at the site where Tesla will build electric vehicles & may cast an even larger vision," he wrote.

The document lays out Tesla's plan for 280 acres of the site, including the construction of a massive vehicle manufacturing plant that, including parking space, will cover 7.9 million square feet.

But it remains unclear what the company plans to do with the remaining 1,820 acres.

Some analysts have speculated that, in addition to producing the Cybertruck pickup and Model Y SUV, the Austin factory may also manufacture batteries, similar to the one in Nevada.

There has also been chatter that Tesla may consider relocating its headquarters from California, where CEO Elon Musk has clashed with county officials over coronavirus orders, to Texas.

Musk announced Austin would be home to the next Gigafactory in late July, after a competitive selection process that saw Del Valle ISD and Travis County offer the company tax rebates for building the factory in their jurisdictions.

In early August, construction supplier Martin Marietta disclosed it had sold the factory site—at the intersection of SH 130 and Harold Green Road, near the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport—to a Tesla entity for $97 million, according to the Austin Business Journal.

Prior to both announcements, however, the site was a hotbed of construction activity as Tesla began reclamation work, that a city staffer said "would be the first step in preparing the site for future development."

New Tesla Gigafactory site in Austin, Texas(youtube)

The first substantial completion, or construction milestone, is scheduled for next spring with the full factory expected to be up and running by the end of 2021, a spokesperson for the Austin Chamber of Commerce confirmed to Austonia, .

As proposed, the factory will provide at least 5,000 jobs, not including the thousands of construction workers who will build the facility.

The company currently has 21 Austin-based job postings for the Gigafactory, including a construction project manager and site architect, in addition to other postings for jobs such as game developers.

Some of Musk's other ventures are also looking to lay down roots in the Austin area, including his "Fitbit in your skull" startup, Neuralink, which is hiring four positions locally.

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