Elon Musk's Talk on Giga-Nevada Expansion Plan (Jan. 24, 2022)

Elon Musk:

Well, let me just start off by thanking you all for your hard work, and just I want to express my immense admiration and appreciation for everything you've done to build Giga Nevada and to help revolutionize the world.

This factory has made a massive effect on transitioning the world to sustainable energy.

It's something you should be incredibly proud of, and I'm incredibly proud of you guys for doing it, so, yeah. 

So, we've made incredible progress at Tesla in building this factory, and achieving a tremendous output of cells, drive units, power electronics, stationary battery packs, but there's more.

It's hard to believe that it was almost a decade ago that we started building this place.

I can remember coming out here to the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Complex, as it's interestingly named, and it was nothing, there was just rocks.

And now we've got this incredible factory. It's the most advanced cell and battery and powertrain factory in the world. And yeah, there's literally more power than rocks.

It actually took me a moment to think of, I spent so much time in this factory. I actually was camping out on the roof at one point, in a little tent, just to sort of save time from going to the hotel. I pitched a little tent on the roof and lived there.

It gets pretty cold at night. // laugh

But just coming in here and seeing all the snow on the ground, I mean, this is such a beautiful area that we're in. And the wild horses, I think people sometimes don't believe me. it's basically like paradise around here.

I think it's 10,000 wild horses just roaming around, snow on the mountains. You've got Lake Tahoe nearby.

So part of this, by the way, is a recruiting call... because we're going to need a lot of people. So definitely talk to your friends and family about coming to work here, because we're going to scale up big time and it's going to be great.

So it's interesting to see the original goal. We thought, at the time, people thought this was a crazy amount of batteries to make.

In fact, when we started out, this one factory was set up to build more lithium ion batteries than the rest of the world combined. 

And it remains by far the biggest factory in North America. 

And the reason we built it is because there literally weren't enough lithium ion batteries. If you took all of the factories on Earth combined, it wouldn't be enough to make electric vehicles at scale.

So that's why we concluded we had to build a factory, a really big factory, which is where the giga part comes in.

So it's one of the biggest factories in the world and it's going to get bigger. 

So in 2014, we projected 35 gigawatt hours of battery cells. And yeah, and we're there.

So we've done $6.2 billion of investment. So over 5 million square feet, 11,000 team members, and we have 3,200 acres of which we've still only used a small portion. So we've got plenty of room to grow.

And I should say that what I'm announcing today is actually not the end of it. It's just really phase two. So there's going to be like phase three and four.

I mean, it really, it just takes a tremendous amount to transition the world to sustainability. You've got to have giant factories if we are to move the world to a sustainable energy future. And yeah, so it's great.

So where we are right now is we've made over 7 billion cells, actually almost more cells than people. And we've done over 3.5 million drive units, so motors and power electronics. We've made a million energy modules for stationary storage.

So exactly, I always remind people, we also make stationary storage. That's very important.

I mean, the three elements of a sustainable energy future, the three pillars are electric vehicles, stationary storage, and then solar and wind.

And because solar and wind are intermittent, you have to have the stationary storage to store the power for when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining. Pretty basic, really.

So it's three pillars. And this is all very doable and will be done. And we'll bring civilization to a sustainable energy future.

And in terms of the economic impact, it's really substantial, $6 billion of total economic output every year. So we've also put $37 million into K-12 education, and we're going to increase that. So it's focused on robotics and sustainability.

So just, yeah, once again, thank you for your incredible work to bring us to this point. And it wouldn't, obviously... thanks to you.

So this photo is from our millionth energy module that we made just last Wednesday. 

So yeah, the risk of being repetitive, thank you very much.

Now, all of that was just the beginning. Well, phase one, at least. And so what we're announcing today is a massive additional investment.

And here's a sneak peek of what the factory will look like. Yeah, it's going to look, it's like, it's sick.

So I mean, one of the other things that's really cool is, we actually achieved our production goals with basically about half of the space we thought would be needed.

So now we're going to fill out the other half. And so we're on to phase two.

So we're going to be investing, I should say these are conservative numbers. So we expect to exceed these numbers. I think we'll end up investing over 4 billion. 

We're adding another 4 million square feet of manufacturing space, and at least 3,000 jobs, direct jobs. And I think it'll probably end up being more than that. These are conservative estimates.

So yeah, so we're going to do our high volume semi-truck manufacturing here. And then we're also going to be adding 100 gigawatt hours of Tesla 4680 cell manufacturing here.

And that's just to start. I think long term we may do as much as 500 gigawatt hours long term. But this increment is 100 gigawatt hours. And yeah, so hugely important. Game changer.

So just some videos of 4680 production.

We expect the new cell factory, as I said, to produce at least 100 gigawatt hours. And as I said, that's really just to begin with.

Long term Tesla is aiming to produce well over 1,000 gigawatt hours, possibly 2 or 3,000. So this really is just the start.

And that's equivalent to one and a half million additional Model 3/Y vehicles. And they will also be using 4680 for stationary storage as well. And to be clear, this is in addition to our suppliers.

So when you think about the fact that there's 2 billion cars and trucks on the road globally, obviously you've got to build a lot of electric vehicles to replace all the gasoline powered vehicles.

And then about as much as what, again, is needed for stationary storage for sustainable energy. So yeah, it's actually really incredible to think about.

And yeah, some people have said this is impossible, but you can drive it. And in fact, we already have the Tesla semi-truck in use by some of our key customers like Pepsi.

So this year is kind of like the limited production of the semi-truck. And then hopefully sometime next year we'll be able to achieve volume production.

And it's a game changer.

So although semi-trucks are only about 1% of the vehicles, they're actually responsible for 20% of the emissions. So it's a much bigger effect than you'd think if you just looked at the number of vehicles. It's an essential part of a sustainable energy future.

And this is a beast. You can see it pull an ass up the mountain there, pretty cool. 

So and I'd like to say also a big thank you to the state of Nevada. And I'd like to invite Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo to join me.

Joe Lombardo:

Well, first and foremost, you guys look awesome!

And I want to thank Elon. I want to thank Elon for his partnership and helping improve your quality of life, my quality of life, and changing the world.

So thank you, round of applause for Elon.

So I appreciate everybody coming together today to give me the opportunity to say hi, first and foremost. 

And hopefully some of you saw my State of the State last night. Did you? Hopefully I said some things that made you happy, made you happy. But I think we will.

So what is my role in this process that we're talking about today?

And obviously Elon's here to change the world. I'm here to change your life.

Elon Musk:

Well, I just want to make it very clear. I get way too much credit. The credit is theirs.

Joe Lombardo:

No, I understand that.

So Elon talked about his three pillars with electric energy, right? You got the EVs, you got the storage, and you got wind and solar.

So my three pillars as your governor is the economy, education, and your quality of life slash public safety. No, that's all part of it.

So the economic driver is obviously Tesla. It is changing the environment and your lives and Nevada's lives with your placement here in the state of Nevada.

And now today with this expansion, it's even going to double the quality of life and the economic engine and the drivers for us to be successful in the whole state of Nevada, in particular to northern Nevada.

And so there's a young man in the audience that just came on my team, Tom Burns. Can you come up here?

(asking Elon) If you don't mind, is it okay?

So you in the back can't see him. He's short. But Tom is the new director of the governor's office of economic development. And he is the one instrumental in partnering with Tesla to ensure that we get this project off the ground and built, and ensuring that it goes in perpetuity into the future.

So thank you, Tom.

So that's the economic pillar, right? That's the economic pillar. So the education pillar for the labor force, for the engineers and everything else that takes to run a village, especially something as magnanimous as Tesla, takes education system in a university system to produce those individuals to occupy those jobs.

And there's a very important person in the audience I'm going to bring up and it's former governor Sandoval. Come up here.

So you may not know, but he's also the President of UNR, where a lot of you might want to school.

So the President of UNLV was here a little while ago, but he decided to leave, and which upsets me because I'm from UNLV and I wanted a little competition going on here.

But I appreciate Brian Sandoval being here. 

And for those who also may not know, Brian Sandoval and Elon had a handshake agreement several years ago that started this whole thing in its infancy.

So thank you, Brian. Thank you for your support!

Elon Musk:

Thank you.

Joe Lombardo:

And the last piece in this is your quality of life slash safety, in particular to I-80 right here, right?

Tracy, Tracy, can I get Tracy up here? Tracy Larkin, come on up.

Who's shorter, Tom or Tracy?

So for those of you in the back, there's a young lady up here. She's the new director of the Department of Transportation.

I informed her, her major task, her primary task is expansion of I-80, creating a safe environment for you to go to and from work, and to ensure that semi-truck gets on the road and gets out of here, all right? 

All right. So that's what we're going to do for you for the state of Nevada. And that's what I'm going to do for you as the head of state of Nevada. 

And hopefully we can partnership with you into the future, and ensure we have a very, very, very long-term relationship and everybody gets to be friends.

So thank you!

Elon Musk:

All right. Thank you!