United States – Envisioning a ‘mass market’ for electric cars in some three years’ time, Tesla Motors is planning on establishing a ‘Gigafactory’ in the USA. The new site will reduce cell costs of lithium-ion batteries ‘much faster than the status quo’, the car maker says. The aim is to produce more lithium-ion batteries annually by 2020 than were produced worldwide last year.
Tesla will collaborate with ′strategic′ battery manufacturing partners to set up the large-scale factory. Ultimately, the plant will have the capacity to manufacture some 500 000 vehicles per year. Tesla estimates that the annual cell output will be around 35 GWh, with pack output around 50 GWh per year.
′We expect the Gigafactory will have driven down the per kWh cost of our battery pack by more than 30% by the end of the first year (2017) of volume production of our mass-market vehicle,′ comments Tesla ceo Elon Musk.
Tesla will directly invest around US$ 2 billion in the venture, while its partners will invest a further US$ 3 billion. The US states of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas have been selected as location candidates so far.
For more information, visit: www.teslamotors.com
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