On December 17, Tesla CEO Musk announced that the total investment in the Austin, Texas plant will exceed $10 billion.
Previously, Tesla planned to invest more than $1 billion in the Texas Gigafactory, and this time Tesla will increase its investment in the plant by 10 times, which has greatly enhanced the status of the Texas factory. You know, when Xiaomi announced the construction of the car, the total investment was also 10 billion US dollars.
Musk said the plant will create at least 20,000 jobs directly and more than 100,000 indirectly. That's also a lot more than Musk had previously planned, after he said the Texas plant would create about 10,000 jobs.
Tesla held an annual shareholders' meeting on October 7, US time, and Musk said that he would move his headquarters from California to Austin, Texas.
Musk, who had lived in Los Angeles, Calif., for more than two decades, moved Tesla's headquarters out of California because he thought the state was no longer friendly enough to innovators. In addition, Musk's SpaceX is also in Texas, and Musk's two-line work is also more convenient.
Although Tesla moved its headquarters from California, the California factory did not move. Tesla currently has a factory in California, Shanghai, Austin, Texas, and Berlin around the world, and the relocation of the headquarters does not affect the operation of each factory.
Musk also mentioned that it is planned that by 2030, the annual production capacity of all Tesla factories will reach 20 million vehicles. In the third quarter, Tesla's quarterly production reached a record of 237,800 units, and based on this calculation, the annual production capacity can now reach 951,200 units. To gradually complete the goal of an annual output of 20 million, Tesla will not only expand the output of existing factories, but also continue to build new factories.
Another reason Tesla is moving its headquarters to Texas is that Texas has less regulation and is more business-friendly. With less supervision, Tesla can let go of its fists and feet. The latest beta version of Tesla's FSD (fully autonomous driving) software is open to some ordinary car owners. Consumer Reports and other media and institutions have slammed Tesla for using ordinary users as guinea pigs for experimentation, with less regulation in Texas and Musk's aggressive FSD testing or not being too constrained.