Tesla Motors is about to pick Nevada for a $5 billion factory that will produce batteries for its electric cars, according to a report.
The company and Nevada’s governor are expected to announce the decision about the so-called “Gigafactory” on Thursday at a news conference in Carson City, the Wall Street Journal said today, citing an anonymous source.
The selection of Nevada would end an intense competition between five states for the manufacturing plant, which is expected to create thousands of jobs and serve as a political coup for any elected official who could land the project. But it’s unclear what financial incentives – if any – Nevada promised to win Tesla’s favor or whether they outweigh any benefit to the state.
The other states bidding for the factory were Texas, New Mexico, California and Arizona. The company may also build a second factory, according to USA Today, although that has not been confirmed.
Tesla (TSLA) will build the factory in partnership with Japanese electronics giant Panasonic. The projected is expected to be completed by 2017, according to the Wall Street Journal, which would coincide with Tesla starting manufacturing of its third vehicle, the Model III electric car. The plant is expected to create 6,500 jobs and produce 35 gigawatt hours of battery cells each year.
Tesla recently said that it had broken ground on a plant outside of Reno. At the time, the company would not say whether that plant would be the Gigafactory.
In choosing Nevada, Tesla is going with a location that is relatively close to its existing electric car assembly plant in Fremont, Calif., near San Francisco. Tesla, which was founded 11 years ago and continues to lose money, hopes to produce half a million cars annually by 2020.