Tesla is planning another factory in North America

Elon Musk announced at the Tesla AGM that the company might announce the location for another factory in North America before the end of the year. In addition, as expected, the AGM approved another three-to-one stock split.

++ This article has been updated. Kindly continue reading below. ++

At the end of March, Tesla had already announced that it was planning another stock split after the one in 2020. Even then, however, it was clear that the action would have to be approved by the Annual General Meeting scheduled for 4 August – which has now happened. The goodwill does not change as a result of the share split – but since the goodwill is distributed over significantly more shares, each share only has a smaller share in the company. This means that the share is also automatically worth less.

Elon Musk explained at the event that Tesla reached the mark of three million e-cars produced last week and reiterated the goal of delivering around 1.5 million vehicles this year – in 2021, Tesla had remained close to six figures in deliveries. The necessary battery capacity for the 1.5 million vehicles had been secured.

Tesla is also sticking to its goal of producing 20 million cars annually in 2030. This will require ten to twelve factories – Tesla currently operates vehicle plants in Fremont, Shanghai, Grünheide and Austin – plus Gigafactory 1 in Nevada, where batteries and components are produced, but no cars.

The factory offensive could begin in the USA: The location for another factory in North America could be announced this year, according to Musk. Musk did not give any hints about the location at the annual general meeting. However, there has been speculation for some time about a factory on the US East Coast, which would allow Tesla to serve the West, the Centre and the East with one factory each.

Including the Gigafactory 2, where mainly the PV roofs of Tesla’s solar division are manufactured, the additional North American factory would be the seventh large Tesla factory and the fifth vehicle plant.

Incidentally, Musk remains similarly open about the Superchargers as he does about the additional factory. He did announce that there would be news there, but did not name it. It is assumed that this will be about opening up the US Superchargers to other brands.

Update 09 August 2022

Following Elon Musk’s recent announcement at the Tesla AGM that Tesla plans to announce the location of another factory in North America later this year, there are now indications that it could be in Canada. As Electric Autonomy Canada reports, citing relevant documents, Tesla has entered into discussions with the government of the Canadian province of Ontario, among other things to identify opportunities for an “advanced manufacturing facility”. This is the term Tesla had previously chosen to describe its Texas factory.

The documents, according to the report, come from a disclosure in July when Tesla signed up to a lobbying register. So it is probably still a matter of preliminary work and negotiations. It is not known how far advanced these are.

Ontario would be a perfectly plausible location in view of previous eMobility projects: General Motors is already producing BrightDrop electric vehicles in Ingersoll, while Ford and Stellantis are also converting vehicle plants in Ontario to produce electric vehicles from 2024 and 2025, respectively. Stellantis is also building a battery cell factory in Ontario in partnership with LGES.

abcnews.go.com, teslarati.com, electricautonomy.ca (update)