It looked like Investor Day was going to end without an announcement about a new Gigafactory, but CEO Elon Musk didn’t disappoint, revealing the company will be building a vehicle Gigafactory in Mexico.
For months there have been rumours that Tesla was close to securing a deal to build Giga Mexico. Those rumours culminated this week with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador saying during a press conference that Tesla had selected Monterrey as the location, and that an announcement would be coming soon.
At the end of the Investor Day presentation and just before the Q&A session Musk confirmed the news, announcing Gigafactory Mexico will be built in Monterrey. The new factory will build Tesla’s next generation vehicle, which hasn’t been revealed yet but more details about the platform were shared today during Investor Day.
Not many other details were provided about Gigafactory Mexico, like when construction will begin or when the company is targeting to begin production. It was later explained by Lars Moravy that they expect the next generation platform to be a high-volume product and they plan to move quickly on it “in the next couple of years.” Given that it will be a high-volume product the next generation vehicle will not exclusively be built at Giga Mexico but will be added to other Gigafactory production lines.
It was also clarified that the factory will not be taking production away from other Gigafactories but will be supplemental to Tesla’s existing production capacity.
The one downside with this announcement, at least for now, is that Canada was also in the running for a potential Gigafactory, according to comments by Musk last year. With Giga Mexico it now looks like a vehicle Gigafactory north of the border is out of the question, but another type of facility, like a battery factory, could still happen.
Our next Gigafactory will be in Mexico, manufacturing our next-gen vehicle pic.twitter.com/bk0IKrGtaZ
— Tesla (@Tesla) March 2, 2023
