Tesla investing in US production capacities

Tesla plans to invest 4.5 to 6.0 billion US dollars in 2021 and 2022 respectively to expand its production capacities for electric cars and batteries. This was revealed in a statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The sums Tesla cites in what is called a 10-Q document correspond to 3.8 to 5.1 billion euros. If Tesla were to reach the upper limit of the range now mentioned in both years, this would mean investments of twelve billion dollars or ten billion euros. The 10-Q document is a report required by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in addition to the regular quarterly reports. In it, companies must disclose further information about their financial situation.

In the conference call following the Q3 financial results, CFO Zachary Kirkhorn already announced that the company would increase its investments. This has now been backed up with figures. By way of comparison, the range for 2020 is 2.5 to 3.5 billion dollars, i.e. 2.1 to 3 billion euros. Tesla justifies the higher spending with “the pipeline of announced projects in development and other infrastructure growth”.

“We are introducing new products simultaneously with the Model Y and the solar roof, building production facilities on three continents and managing the development and manufacture of new battery cell technologies,” the document states. “The pace of our investments may vary depending on the overall priority of the projects and the pace at which we reach the milestones.” It goes on to say: “We expect our ability to be self-financing to continue as long as macroeconomic factors support current revenue trends.”

A list of the works is also interesting. There, besides the Fremont Factory and the Gigafactories in Shanghai, Brandenburg and Texas, a “U.S. location TBD” is also listed. According to the list, the Tesla Roadster 2 and the electric Semi truck will be built in this not yet confirmed third US plant.

What this means is that the Semi will not be built in the Gigafactory Texas as previously assumed. Already in August Elon Musk indicated in an interview that there might be another US plant. “I think there will be a third gigafactory sometime. I would imagine that it would be in the Northeast,” Musk told Automotive News. “There is a lot to do. But do I think that at some point we will have a third plant in North America? I think that’s very likely.”

At the time, Musk cautioned that there were no concrete plans yet and that construction would probably start in four to five years at the earliest. But if the Roadster 2 and the Semi were to be built only at this new plant, it would require an earlier start of construction given the model schedules. Speculation that Tesla might also plan a Gigafactory in India is likely to be curbed for the time being with the entry “U.S. location TBD”.

For the gigafactories in Brandenburg and Texas, the document mentions Model Y with the status “Constructing manufacturing facilities”. In GigaBerlin, the Model 3 “in development” is added, in Texas the Cybertruck is “in development”.

#GigaBerlin
A bit of statistics. 📋
The yellow area will be the future parking lot of GIGABERLIN.
with 3254 total parking spaces.
with 615 charging station. ⚡
with 8 superchargers. ⚡

source: Tesla / GIGABERLIN pic.twitter.com/bD0ZyDWK0S

— @GF4Tesla..🏗️🏗️.build #GigaBerlin. (@Gf4Tesla) October 19, 2020

Speaking of GigaBerlin: Plans for the German factory show that a total of 3,254 parking spaces are planned there. 615 parking spaces are to be equipped with destination chargers and eight with superchargers. This would mean that around 20 per cent of the parking spaces would have a charging facility. Of the 3,254 parking spaces, 2,166 are designated as general employee parking spaces. But this also means that with up to 12,000 employees – even if these are divided into shifts – Tesla will also have to rely on rail travel.

With reporting by Sebastian Schaal, Germany.

electrek.co, insideevs.com (Q-10 document), teslarati.com (additional Gigafactory)