On September 4 of this year, Tesla, a high-end electric car manufacturing company, signed a deal with the state of Nevada, making the Silver State the location of the company’s ambitious, new, wind and solar energy-powered “Gigafactory.”
What is a “gigafactory”? Well, as a brand, Tesla does not want to remain a car company for the rich and famous. Tesla’s ultimate goal is to produce affordable electric cars for the mass market. With the completion of The Gigafactory, this dream may become a reality in as little as three years.
The Gigafactory, according to Tesla’s website, “is designed to reduce cell costs much faster than the status quo and, by 2020, produce more lithium ion batteries annually than were produced worldwide in 2013.” The factory will also be built on a large scale, minimize costs and waste which will save both Tesla and consumers money.
The factory will cost $5 billion to build and will require 3,000 construction workers to complete. With the current nationwide unemployment rate at over 6%, it’s no wonder that the other states in consideration for the factory’s location—Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas—were fiercely fighting for Tesla to choose them. But, in the end, Nevada offered the best tax incentives to company.
Once the factory is finished, it will create 6,500 new administrative and manufacturing jobs, boosting the Nevada economy, while making high-performance electric vehicles not only more affordable, but also more common on the American roadways. According to a University of California, Berkeley study, “electric cars would account...for 64% of US light-duty vehicle sales by 2030.” Knowing that this inverse relationship between rising gas prices and the declining cost electric cars is likely to remain unchanged, it is important for consumers to examine the effects of owning an electric car.
In order to power an electric car, owners will charge their car at home, causing their electrical bills to increase significantly, unless, they have a solar energy system. A SunPower solar energy system will off-set and (in many cases) eliminate the cost to power an electric vehicle and the home where it is charged. To combat both ever increasing costs of gas and electricity, more consumers should consider going solar.
Sources:
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/gigafactory
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Teslas-5B-Giga-Battery-Factory-and-Deep-
Politics-in-AZ-TX-NV-and-NM
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2009/07/becker-20090714.html