

Tesla selects Nevada for battery plant - velodrome
http://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-tesla-selects-nevada-battery-plant-200941469.html

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dave1619
This isn't a spam post (I've been on HN for 4+ years and have good karma, see
my profile)...

But for those who want to keep up with Tesla in a simple and easy way, I
recently started a weekly email newsletter
([http://teslaweekly.com](http://teslaweekly.com)) that highlights the most
notable Tesla news along with additional commentary. You can see the 1st
edition at [http://teslaweekly.com/issues/1](http://teslaweekly.com/issues/1)
.

~~~
butwhy
Good luck keeping your domain, as it would seems it is trademark infringing.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Author seems to be well-meaning, so I hope that... no, I _expect_ Tesla to
play nice with him. It would be a really sad thing if they litigated.

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jbarrow
I'm glad to see they've finally made a decision. Harry Reid had expressed some
concern [1] that Musk might have been playing Nevada with no real intention of
building the Gigafactory there, so it's all well that it panned out.

On an unrelated note, for anyone interested in tracking Tesla's supercharger
progress, they have a map of current and planned stations across the three
continents they've expanded into. [2] I enjoy checking it occasionally to see
how much progress they've made.

[1] [http://www.businessinsider.com/harry-reid-elon-musk-might-
be...](http://www.businessinsider.com/harry-reid-elon-musk-might-be-playing-
nevada-2014-8) [2]
[http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger](http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger)

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sneak
Playing? How?

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dangerlibrary
Playing a state, in this context, would be securing regulatory concessions and
tax incentives from Nevada without any intention of building a factory there.
Those concessions could then be used as bargaining chips in the state in which
they intended to build the plant.

~~~
sneak
It costs Nevada nothing if they don't actually build there. That's just
negotiation.

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yannibuk
Basically, it's as close to California's engineering center as possible
without having to deal with the expensive manufacturing environment that is
California. Plus a huge incentive. Nice work, Tesla.

The part about proximity to lithium & renewable energy is just PR fluff... but
it can make you feel good when you are paying a few hundred dollars less for
your car.

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D_Alex
From the article:

>At present, demand for electric vehicles is small. Through August, automakers
have sold just over 40,000 fully electric cars this year, up 35 percent from a
year ago.....

At present, the _supply_ of the electrical vehicles is low, and Tesla for one
cannot keep up with the demand - as evidenced by the 5-month waiting list for
a new Tesla model S. The new factory will drastically increase the supply, and
we can expect the demand to grow further as the prices for electrical vehicles
are reduced.

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pchristensen
"Tesla has said it would need about 10 million square feet"

Wow, that's big! Reno always made sense - structurally cheaper than CA, but
closer to the Fremont factory than even Los Angeles.

Also, I hate business tax incentives, but $500M for a $5B factory + 6500 jobs
is not terrible.

~~~
jychang
It's hell in winter to get to Reno via 80 though. The highway can close a lot.

I'm not sure about the rail lines, but I can imagine a lot of delays in
infrastructure in winter either way. At least for a Fremont-LA line, you won't
hit those snags in winter.

~~~
ChuckMcM
I would joke about adding a hyperloop between Reno and the Bay Area :-)
Actually rail is pretty reliable through there, more so than the highway.

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electromagnetic
I know here in Canada rail is far more reliable in winter than highway. Raised
rail lines tend to stay clear of snow build up. Snow on the rails isn't a big
issue, its more the build up that bottoms out the train.

I doubt these will be being shipped by truck given the quantities we're
dealing with. I also would not doubt an improvement in the infrastructure for
a corporation bringing 6500 jobs and $5bn into the economy.

~~~
sparkman55
There's a really cool snowblower train that plies Donner Pass between
Sacramento and Reno:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItdRfvYHPAY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItdRfvYHPAY)

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jrapdx3
"Cool" is the word to describe it, especially in the middle of all that snow.

There's an example of that kind of rail-clearing engine in Skagway, Alaska. I
saw it there just over a month ago. That snow machine isn't used anymore--an
historic museum piece on exhibit--but close up it is impressive.

~~~
richard_cubano
Maybe they'll finally start running Capitol Corridor trains to Reno? That
would be lovely in the winter for heading up to Tahoe for skiing...

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toomuchtodo
Did someone find out about this early? At around 4pm, there was a momentary
~$8 stock in the price of TSLA in after-hours trading.

[http://i.imgur.com/WOoJI1v.png](http://i.imgur.com/WOoJI1v.png)

~~~
mrb
The uptick occured at 4:14pm ET, which is _exactly_ when the news was first
published at
[http://www.autonews.com/article/20140903/OEM05/140909950/tes...](http://www.autonews.com/article/20140903/OEM05/140909950/tesla-
to-locate-gigafactory-in-nevada-report-says) (Automotive News were the first
ones to learn about it and published the article at 4:13pm).

~~~
electromagnetic
Either someone's really fast, or I'm guessing this is autotraders that pick up
on keywords.

~~~
tankenmate
Most hedge funds these days use tools to trawl news and social media sites so
they can react quicker to news. I'm sure old school investment firms aren't
far behind.

~~~
eigenvalue
It's hardly most hedge funds that do this. But there are a few that do, and
since price is determined on the margin, it only takes a few to move the
price.

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andrewfong
Worth pointing out that at least two of the competitors against Nevada,
Arizona and Texas, have laws on the books prohibiting direct sales (as opposed
to going through a dealership). I'm sure that was a factor.

~~~
ww520
Tesla could have used the factory as a leverage to remove those laws.

~~~
andrewfong
I think they tried with Arizona. As far as I know, it didn't happen.

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cdibona
Nevada and Lithium:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Peak,_Nevada](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Peak,_Nevada)

If the goal is to reduce the cost of production, nevada has a terrific 'local'
source of lithium, which probably counted for something.

~~~
rrggrr
Cheap geothermal and solar power. No state income tax. Close proximity to
aerospace and defense employees and vendors. Reasonably close to Tesla. And,
yes, close to major lithium deposits.

~~~
TeMPOraL
And, to remind everyone, Musk actually called various mining operations
directly and secured some very good deals.

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vegasbrianc
Super news for Nevada! This is a state that really needs some jobs outside of
the casino industry.

~~~
vhost-
Agreed! I'm a native Nevadan that left Reno for tech. But my parents
definitely need jobs :).

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koberstein
For those interested, there will be a live stream announcement from Gov
Sandoval at 4PM PST [http://gov.nv.gov/](http://gov.nv.gov/)

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rdl
I wonder if this will do anything to help turn Reno into more of a tech
employment center in its own right.

~~~
bhhaskin
It already is! Reno has changed quite a bit over the past few years. There are
more and more small tech companies springing up.

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Shivetya
no individual or income taxes, how much did that weigh in the decision, or did
Harry Reid weigh in?

~~~
colinloretz
Apple also received/is receiving additional incentives [1] for their new
iCloud data centers which are being built near where Tesla is planning to put
the gigafactory (the plot of land is already graded for the factory).

For those interested, Katie Fehrenbacher from Gigaom did some great coverage
last month of what is happening out here RE: Tesla and Apple.[2]

1\. [http://www.areadevelopment.com/newsItems/8-3-2012/apple-
iclo...](http://www.areadevelopment.com/newsItems/8-3-2012/apple-icloud-data-
center-sparks-nv-262722.shtml) 2\. [http://gigaom.com/2014/08/10/the-changing-
face-of-reno-why-t...](http://gigaom.com/2014/08/10/the-changing-face-of-reno-
why-the-worlds-biggest-little-city-is-attracting-apple-tesla/)

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bhhaskin
They broke ground on the gigafactory's pit and foundation a few months back.

