After Elon Musk suggested during a recent shareholders’ meeting that Tesla was looking at building its next Gigafactory in Canada, now we have confirmation that the manufacturer is indeed going forward with this plan. According to a source from Canada, the automaker had already filed documents with the Government of Ontario stating that it was looking to build an “advanced manufacturing facility” in the state.
Electric Autonomy Canada got hold of the lobbying documents, which under Canadian law must be made public, submitted by Tesla in July, when the Texas-based automaker stated that it wanted to
Engage with the government and its agencies to identify opportunities for industrial and/or advanced manufacturing facility permitting reforms with the intent to increase the competitiveness of Ontario and its ability to attract capital investment through establishing approvals timeframes that are competitive with high-growth manufacturing locations in North America, while also working with government to identify or align incentives programs that could further increase the attractiveness of Ontario for industrial and/or advanced manufacturing investment.
Aside from its original home factory in Fremont, California, Tesla now has manufacturing locations in Austin, Texas (its headquarters since 2021), Shanghai, China and Berlin, Germany. Out of all these factories, Giga Berlin was the hardest to complete and make operational - it stopped production again for two weeks in July after only having started making cars in late March.
At the same time, the manufacturer’s new home plant in Austin, went up very smoothly and quickly with virtually no delays. It can now build thousands of Model Ys per week (and build them well) and it has already asked for permission to expand its facility with an additional 500,000 square-foot building, adding to the already huge 4-million square-foot factory.
The reason Tesla chose another site in North America for its next factory may be because it wants to repeat the experience it had at Giga Texas. Ontario also wants to set up a supply chain for the manufacturing of electric vehicles in the state, making it more attractive to Tesla and other automakers.
The building of the Shanghai Gigafactory in China was the speediest of them all, taking just 168 days from obtaining permits to connecting the plant to the electrical grid. Tesla isn’t considering another factory in China just yet, but it is doubling the production capacity in Shanghai where it hopes to be able to produce 14,000 Model Ys and 7,700 Model 3s per week, and ultimately 1-million vehicles every year (initial capacity was 450,000 units per year).
Elon Musk recently said that Tesla could officially announce the new factory by the end of the year and that the company has no intention to stop building manufacturing locations. Apparently, Tesla is targeting building as many as 12 Gigafactories around the world, although the time frame for this was not mentioned.
