Tesla and its suppliers are set to inject up to $15 billion over the next two years into the construction of the upcoming Gigafactory in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. This announcement, made by Nuevo Leon Governor Samuel Garcia, is a significant departure from the initial estimates, which had pegged Tesla’s investment at one-third that amount, $5 billion.
Back in March, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced plans to build Giga Mexico as part of the company’s global expansion strategy, with the first cars rolling off the factory’s production lines being the next-generation platform. However, the exact investment details were absent from Musk’s announcement, and we haven’t really heard anything more from Tesla about the project since that announcement.
Instead Tesla fans have had to rely on government officials, who initially revealed the company would be spending up to $5 billion to build Giga Mexico.
The infusion of $15 billion into the region is expected to have a major impact on the region. Governor Garcia noted that such a substantial investment would necessitate significant upgrades to the state’s infrastructure, particularly in terms of highways and other public works projects.
While Musk had previously indicated that Tesla’s production in Mexico would start with the next-gen platform, that has since changed. As we reported last week the next-gen platform will now first be built at Giga Texas. The change was made to allow Tesla’s top engineers to oversee the project, instead of having them move to Mexico, something which executives thought might be difficult to do.
The change could also be behind the slow progress since the factory was first announced. Tesla is known to build their Gigafactories at breakneck speeds, but there has been no activity at the site in the six months since the announcement. According to a recent report, production might be delayed until as late as 2027.
