Tesla Shows off the Nearly-Completed Gigafactory with New Time-Lapse Video

With the recent success of the 'handover party' for the affordable, mass-market Model 3 EV, Elon Musk and his automotive company shared with the world a time-lapse video of the Tesla Gigafactory located in the state of Nevada. As the Model 3 is projected to ramp up Tesla's manufacturing volume of 500,000 electric vehicles by December of this year, the Gigafactory proves to become one of the company's key element in achieving such production feat.

Gigafactory - Nevada pic.twitter.com/0zjJGdKLuk

— Tesla (@TeslaMotors) July 29, 2017

The Tesla Gigafactory is key to producing an affordable and mass-market vehicle

The Tesla Gigafactory that began construction in June 2014 is expected to reach full capacity by next year. As Tesla Motors and its CEO, Elon Musk announced that they will manufacture 500,000 Model 3s in the not-so-distant future, this desert-based giant factory will play a key role in the EV maker's ambitious plans. "This factory is very important to the future of Tesla because, without it, we can't do the mass-market car", said Elon Musk during the Gigafactor announcement. According to Tesla Motors, the Gigafactory was built to economically produce lithium ion batteries by using innovative manufacturing methods and "locating most manufacturing process under one roof".

Before the advent of the latest Model 3, the Tesla Gigafactory has already been envisioned in order to supply the affordable, mass-market car with battery packs.

[Image Source: Tesla Motors]

Elon Musk shared his thoughts on what the Tesla Gigafactory would be once it reaches its full working capacity.

"We started out with it being nothing, just desert, and built what is now the largest battery factory in the world. And when it’s done it will produce more lithium ion batteries than the rest of global production combined, from one building."

As the name suggests, the Tesla Gigafactory was designed to achieve great and formidable things. Musk gave a perspective of just how immense the Gigafactory would be in terms of producing lithium ion batteries on a global scale.

"It will be bigger than the sum of all lithium ion factories in the world. If you add up all the lithium ion factories in China, Korea, Japan, and elsewhere in the world and sum up all their production capability, the Gigafactory is actually bigger than that".

So, why have the Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada?

Apart from its reputation as the silver state, Nevada is also, apparently, the ideal state to build Elon Musk's global-scale Gigafactory.

"In deciding on where should we place this, we had to say ok, where are we going to have high confidence that this factory is going to be ready on time so that when we're ready to produce the vehicle, the factory is ready to produce the battery packs", explained Musk. "And of course, can we operate that factory cost-effectively so the car itself can be affordable and I think people in Nevada should be very proud that that's the state you have, it's a great state and I would encourage other people to come here as well", he added.

Sources: Tesla Motors, Tesla via Twitter

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