Tesla began construction on Giga Texas in July 2020, even before the location was officially announced by CEO Elon Musk.
Crews have been working at breakneck speed since then, in a race with crews from Giga Berlin to see which factory will be first to have cars rolling off the production line.
While Giga Berlin appears to be ahead, it continues to be mired in delays to receive its final permit approvals.
In a sign that the gap might be closer than we think, Tesla has submitted new filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR).
Early this afternoon, the automaker filed 5 projects for the Austin Gigafactory on Texas’ Architectural Review Board portal, also known as TDLR TABS.
The 5 filings are named for the different sections of the Austin Gigafactory: Paint, Casting, Stamping, Body in White, and General Assembly, adding up to a massive 4,286,680 square feet.
The total estimated cost of all the projects is close to $1.1 billion, and according to each filing, the ‘Scope of Work’ is listed as “Ground up construction and interior finish out of EV manufacturing facility.”
But perhaps most importantly, the completion date on each filing is listed as December 31, 2021.
UPDATE Nov 27 10:33am PST: Unlike the painstakingly slow approval process in Germany, the review of the application for the Stamping area has already been completed.
https://twitter.com/MarcoRPTesla/status/1464655986480893954
UPDATE Nov 29 7:52am PST: All five applications are now marked as having their reviews complete.
BREAKING: The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has officially completed their review of all 5 of Teslas Giga Texas filings. The reviews included:
• General Assembly
• Casting
• Body in White
• Paint
• StampingAll the permits now show: Review Complete pic.twitter.com/q6lIMiUTt1
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) November 29, 2021
If Tesla is able to meet that target, it will line up with recent statements made by CFO Zachary Kirkhorn.
During the company’s Q3 2021 earnings call, he said the company is still targeting to build the first production cars before December 31, 2021.
He did add however that even if production does begin before the end of the year, no deliveries of cars made at Giga Texas will take place for several months as they work out the production line kinks.
