A $1.1 billion plant in Austin, Texas, opened its doors to thousands of Tesla fans. It will help the company make more electric cars and launch new products, like the Cybertruck pickup truck, in the future.
The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, is set to speak to 15,000 people at the Cyber Rodeo event late Thursday about new versions of the Model Y compact crossover that will be built in Austin with a new battery pack that will improve range and cut costs.
It is part of Tesla’s new “master plan” to “scale to extreme size,” Musk said on Twitter last month.
The Tesla CEO opened a new factory in Berlin last month. He said there could be more plant announcements by the end of the year, and that there could be more factories.
At the Austin event, prototypes for the Cybertruck and Semi cargo truck were on display. It wasn’t clear if Musk would give an updated timeline for production or give more information about the new products that he was making.
They made the Cybertruck at a plant in Texas in 2023, which is two years behind what he had planned.
On social media, Tesla fans shared videos from inside the Giga Texas plant. They showed off important parts of the inside. People outside were making the Texas state flag out of Tesla Model Y cars that were colored in red, white, and blue. Some visitors wore cowboy-themed clothes, and there was a mechanical bull on show.
Musk was supposed to speak at 9 p.m. Central Time. He was supposed to be there.
It’s not likely that Musk will talk about the business or the product, but the impact of putting these production lines online is big. Gene Munster, managing partner at Loup Ventures, said in a research note.
It’s possible that Musk could give the crowd some new product information. Munster, who is positive about Tesla’s business plan and stock price, said that Musk could give the crowd some new information.
Investors can be surprised because the bar for making an announcement is so low. “The announcements are said to be about changes to Cybertruck and Semi,” says the author.
As long as the new plant focuses on the Model Y, Tesla’s global production is expected to rise from about 1 million vehicles last year to about 2 million vehicles in 2023, say analysts. This is even though the new plant will be focused on making the Model Y. Tesla now has four factories that make cars. Austin and Berlin joined Fremont, Calif., and Shanghai, China, as factories.