During the Q2 2020 earnings call on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a number of big announcements, the biggest being that Austin, Texas will be the location of the next Gigafactory.
After the announcement, Musk said the new factory would build the Model 3 and Model Y for the eastern half of North America, along with the upcoming Cybertruck.
Importantly, the new factory will also be where the Tesla Semi will be manufactured, the first time the automaker has confirmed where it will be built.
The last time we got an update on Semi production was 3 months ago, when it was announced in the Q1 earnings report it was going to be delayed until 2021.
But then just last month, an email from Musk was leaked where he said he is ready to bring the Semi to volume production, indicating it would happen even sooner.
Given that email and the announcement that the Semi will be built at Giga Texas, there is a good chance the Semi production line will be up and running when the factory completes construction.
While the factory was only announced on Wednesday, Musk did say that construction had already begun at the site over the weekend. Initial plans call for Giga Texas to be built and operational before the end of 2021. Given that Giga Shanghai was built in less than a year, and Giga Berlin is on track to possibly beat that record, it’s a good bet Giga Texas will be built on schedule.
If that happens, then Tesla has a good chance to beat Nikola Motors to market with the first zero emissions semi, which has been one of the big talking points for Nikola chairman Trevor Milton.
Nikola Motors broke ground on their new factory in Coolidge, Arizona yesterday. According to their plans, the first phase will be complete in 12-14 months, lining up almost exactly with Tesla’s proposed completion date.
Now the race is on to see which truck will roll off the production line first.
