Tesla investing $3.6B in Nevada Semi and battery plant

Tesla factory upgrade will create 3,000 new jobs

Tesla announced on Tuesday that it is investing $3.6 billion to expand its Nevada Gigafactory to accommodate mass production of its Semi truck and next-generation batteries.

Two new facilities with over 4 million square feet of manufacturing space will be added to the Reno-area complex.

The automaker said 3,000 new jobs would be created by the project.

The facility, which currently manufactures electric motors, batteries and the Powerwall energy storage system, employs over 7,000 people today.

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PepsiCo is operating several Tesla Semis. (Benjamin Fanjoy/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"Thank you for believing in Nevada, @Tesla!," tweeted Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, who took office on January 2 and visited the Sparks, Nevada, facility on Tuesday.

Tesla delivered the first of its new Semi trucks to PepsiCo last December, five years after it was first unveiled as a concept. The vehicles were built on a pilot production line that is not yet designed for mass manufacturing.

Tesla Truck unveil

The first production Tesla Semis were delivered on December 1, 2022. (Tesla/Handout via REUTERS  / Reuters Photos)

Tesla has not said exactly how many have been built to date, but a PepsiCo spokesperson told FOX Business in December that it expected to take delivery of 36 trucks by the end of 2022.

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Exact pricing for the Semi, which qualifies for a $40,000 federal tax credit, has not been announced, and Tesla has not said if any other customers have yet received trucks. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said during the company's third-quarter earnings call that it is aiming to be manufacturing the vehicles at a rate of 50,000 annually by 2024.

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This rendering shows what the main building of the Tesla Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, will look like when complete. (Tesla)

The new batteries are designed around a cell Tesla called the 4680, which was designed to have a higher capacity and be cheaper to make than the design it is replacing. They are currently produced in low volumes at other locations and installed in a version of the Tesla Model Y that is assembled in Texas.

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The Nevada battery facility will have an annual capacity of 100 GWh of cell output, which Tesla said is enough to support the production of 1.5 million light vehicles.