Missouri offers billions in US Tesla plant bid

In the USA, the city of Joplin in Missouri has made a formal bid for Tesla’s new Gigafactory. In Germany, Tesla’s Giga Berlin is making progress with local infrastructure.

But first to America, where Tesla is looking for a location in “central USA” for another Gigafactory to produce the Cybertruck and the Model Y for customers not on the West Coast. Missouri authorities claim that their offer is worth about one billion US dollars in incentives over a period of twelve years.

Toby Teeter, President of the region’s Chamber of Commerce, confirmed that: “Approximately a week ago the city of Joplin and the Chamber of Commerce put a formal bid together and submitted it to Tesla corporate”

The package is to include a 400-hectare site, which is to be sold to Tesla for half the price. In addition, taxes are to be completely waived for 12 years, and the state wants to help with the purchase of the equipment and the training of the workforce.

Last month, Nashville, Tennessee, was put up for consideration – Tennessee is already home to a Nissan plant manufacturing the Leaf, and VW is rebuilding its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the production of the ID.4. Also in the running for the new Tesla factory is the city of Austin, Texas. The bid from Joplin, Missouri points out that due to the lower cost of living in Missouri, Tesla could save about 75 million dollars per year in labour costs.

Tesla boss Elon Musk had already made it clear, however, that the company not only considers financial incentives count when choosing a location, but also “logistics costs, access to a large workforce with a wide range of talents and quality of life”.

Teeter extrapolated on the opportunities in Joplin, Missouri by pointing out that the location in the bid is going to have rail access and is located near the 44 and 49 interstate motorways, as well as being just minutes away from the Joplin Regional Airport. “We’re also the trucking capital of America. That gives Tesla front-row access to its next market with four of the largest trucking companies in the nation within a 60-mile radius,” he added.

Tesla has not yet revealed when they will be deciding on the US location. What is certain, however, is that Tesla plans to put the Cybertruck into production by the end of 2021.

Giga Berlin gets its own motorway exit

Even earlier than anticipated, Tesla is aiming to start production at the Giga Berlin factory in summer 2021, and construction at the Grünheide site is already well underway. The Brandenburg Ministry of Transport revealed that the Tesla factory in Brandenburg would be given its motorway junction. At first, Tesla will be setting up a new junction connecting to the A 10 highway their own expense. In the medium term, however, the state government will finance and install a fixed motorway exit for the location.

Here, too, Tesla will be relying on rail infrastructure and not only on truck transport: rail freight and logistics facilities are to be set up on the company premises. However, as yet there are no plans to expand freight transport capacities on the Berlin – Frankfurt (Oder) railway line.

electrek.co (Missouri), rbb24.de (Brandenburg, in German)