Electric car maker Tesla Motors plans to hold a “grand opening” celebration for its massive battery factory under construction outside of Reno, Nev. On the night of July 29.
The company disclosed that date in an email to customers who had won tickets to the event by referring more than five other customers in Tesla’s car referral program. The email was posted to Reddit and Tesla confirmed with Coins2Day that a customer-focused launch event will occur that night.
The Gigafactory won’t likely be fully completed within the next two months, but Tesla has been hosting smaller events in areas of the factory where construction is complete. In March, Tesla (TSLA) and SolarCity (SCTY) hosted Nevada’s legislators for talks about the future of solar in the state.
The factory, which will cost at least $5 billion to build, was only 14% completed as of the beginning of May, according to this Bloomberg report. Tesla is working with Panasonic to supply it with battery production equipment and part of the funding.
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Despite that there’s ongoing construction at the factory, it’s already churning out batteries that Tesla is selling to utilities, companies, and building owners. These batteries, which Tesla introduced a year ago, can be used to store solar energy at night and better manage the power grid.
Tesla is building the Gigafactory to produce massive amounts of low cost batteries for its electric cars of the future. Through mass production, Tesla is hoping to lower the costs of its batteries by at least a third.
Tesla’s next car, the Model 3, is supposed to cost $35,000 compared to its $80,000 to $150,000 Model S and Model X cars. A chunk of that cost savings is supposed to come from batteries made in the Gigafactory.
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Last month, Tesla unveiled the Model 3, and quickly racked up at least 400,000 reservations for the car. To meet the high demand, Tesla has said it will speed up production of the car considerably.
Tesla raised $1.7 billion this week in a follow-on offering to fund its accelerated manufacturing of the Model 3.
The battery equipment used in the Gigafactory is supposed to double the world’s lithium-ion battery production capacity. The factory itself will cover 5.8 million square feet.
