Culture
Tesla's Cybertruck is going to be built in Texas
The company has confirmed its all-electric pickup will be built in its latest American facility in the Texan city of Austin.
Tesla's upcoming Cybertruck, which is scheduled to arrive sometime in 2021, will be built in the company's new U.S. factory in Austin, Texas, The Verge reports. The company had also been considering Tulsa in Oklahoma for the new facility and says it may yet build something there in the future. Tesla CEO Elon Musk's other business, Space X, already has a presence in the Lone Star state, but this one will likely be less disruptive for locals than the rocket factory in Boca Chica.
Musk has previously claimed he'd consider moving Tesla's HQ from California to either Texas or Nevada to escape Californian officials' attempts to limit production at Tesla's Fremont facility during the coronavirus pandemic. The company has also received multi-million dollar tax breaks and incentives from the Austin county that'll host the new production plant, which sweetens the deal even further for the electric vehicle maker. The factory is expected to see $1 billion of investment in the area and employ 5,000 people.
Visitors welcome — According to The Verge, the Texan factory will be open to the public, and Musk says “It’s going to basically be an ecological paradise,” adding that the facility will also help with the production of the company's Model Y and Model 3 vehicles, and the forthcoming Tesla Semi.
The company's forthcoming Berlin Gigafactory looks beautiful in renders, and if Musk is to be believed, will include a rooftop "rave space." If he sticks with the trend of including a local touch in each new facility, we expect the Austin Gigafactory to have a bandstand, BBQs and smokers, a canteen with 100 varieties of hot sauce, and the persistent smell of marijuana.
Optimistic timelines — While Tesla is having an incredible run on the stock market, making Musk extremely wealthy in the process, and is now the most valuable carmaker on earth, that hype is creating real-world problems for the company. It's struggling to keep up with demand in some markets, and its latest addition to its vehicle roster, the Model Y, has been plagued with quality control issues.
It'll need to address those if it's going to continue to inspire the sort of loyalty it enjoys from its — sometimes rabid — fans. And it has a history of missing its own production deadlines, not to mention the "fully autonomous driving" it's been promising — and failing to deliver — for years.
More people have ordered the Cybertruck than the total number of cars the company has produced to date. So the Texas facility is guaranteed to be busy. The question is whether it's going to be able to match both Musk's assurances and consumers' expectations.
