Tesla says second ‘Gigafactory’ will be in Europe

Tesla has announced its second ‘Gigafactory’ battery production plant will be built in Europe. CEO Elon Musk said the massive factory will produce both vehicles and batteries at a significantly cheaper price […]

Tesla has announced its second ‘Gigafactory’ battery production plant will be built in Europe.

CEO Elon Musk said the massive factory will produce both vehicles and batteries at a significantly cheaper price than currently possible. It is expected to see annual battery production capacity reach 35GWh.

It was announced following Tesla’s purchase of Grohmann Engineering, a German developer of automated assembly systems. Its technology is said to be essential in improving the quantity and quality of production while simultaneously reducing costs.

The first Gigafactory is still under construction in Nevada and is expected to be completed in 2020.

‘Gigafactory 2’ is part of Tesla’s plans to achieve its goal of producing 500,000 EVs each year by 2018, a massive increase from a total of 90,000 forecast this year.

Tesla has not yet confirmed the timescale or exact location, with CEO Elon Musk suggesting production of ‘Model 3’ would take priority for now.

Tesla took nearly 370,000 pre-orders of ‘Model 3’ ahead of delivery in 2017. It will sell for about $35,000 (£28,263), cheaper than the company’s other models.

Sumit Bose, Editor of Energy Live News, recently took the Tesla ‘Model S’ for a spin.

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