Giddy Up: Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory Officially Opens

Tesla officially opened its Austin, Texas Gigafactory late last week, hailed by the company as a key step in production of its forthcoming (we think) Cybertruck.

15,000 people were invited to a live opening of the factory, which Musk called a “Cyber Rodeo”. Clad in his cowboy hat, Musk told the attendees that the company was entering a “new phase” of its future. 

“We are really entering a new phase of Tesla’s future. I can’t wait to see this baby in production, it’s going to be epic,” Musk told the crowd. 

He continued: “We need a place where we can be really big, and there’s no place like Texas. We going to move to a truly massive scale.”

Musk showed off a new version of the Cybertruck, a new Roadster which is supposedly coming next year, and a robotaxi he said would look “quite futuristic”, according to The Verge, who was at the event. 

Tesla now has four factories in the United States: Fremont, CA, Sparks, NV and Buffalo, NY are the other three. 

Austin is also where Elon Musk has proclaimed Tesla is moving its headquarters. Musk has “reportedly has been living at the multimillion-dollar home of a friend along a lake in Austin,” the Verge wrote. 

The new factory will help boost Tesla’s U.S. production capacity, including production of the company’s Model Y, Model 3 and Cybertruck.

The factory is on 2,100 acres with about 2 miles of exposure to Texas’ Colorado River. Texas has offered Tesla tax breaks and incentives and the factory is expected to hire up to 5,000 workers.

You can watch the entire event here: