
The Negotiations Game Behind Tesla's Gigafactory - oska
http://fortune.com/inside-elon-musks-billion-dollar-gigafactory/
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kanamekun
The last paragraph really blew me away:

<< By November, when Musk discussed the deal on an earnings call, he sounded
exasperated with continued condemnation of the terms he had extracted from
Nevada. Calling the deal a “super-good idea” for the state, he said the
criticism “kind of bugs me. I thought we got an okay incentive package, given
the scale, but not a super-huge one.” >>

If he honestly thinks that a $1.4 billion in tax breaks and free land is just
a "okay" incentive package, it explains a lot about how he was able to ask for
$500m cash upfront from the state to fund the factory.

~~~
faitswulff
One of my takeaways was that you have to be somewhat pathological to be able
to make wagers of that size during negotiations.

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oldspiceman
The article states: "He took a process that typically plays out behind the
scenes and made it public." and then suggests that his methods were
manipulative.

Every successful company negotiates like this. You just never hear about it.
They keep it under wraps and as a result nobody knows what really happened
behind closed doors.

~~~
ealexhudson
I read that as 'public between the competitors', not as in bringing any
extraordinary daylight to the issue. It clearly says many of the politicians
involved were thinking carefully about what the public would think when the
deal was announced.

I don't think people are generally that impressed by this sort of corporate
welfare. If the public takes on the burden of some of the liabilities, they
should be entitled to some of the upside. Creating jobs is great (even though
it also generates new public liabilities), but it's difficult to see this deal
as worthwhile.

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Animats
Nevada overpaid for those jobs. 6,500 employees? Probably only during startup.
Once it's running, it should be mostly automated. The Chevy Volt battery plant
has about 300 employees.

~~~
mschuster91
But all the tax breaks and other incentives only apply when Tesla meets the
job-count required, so Tesla has a massive incentive to uphold the jobs...

~~~
Animats
No. "The factory is supposed to employ 6,500 people, but that is not what the
tax breaks are tied to." \- New York Times.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/business/nevada-woos-
tesla...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/business/nevada-woos-tesla-plant-
in-tax-deal-but-economic-benefits-prompt-debate.html)

It's really "up to 6,500 people". That's only if the later stages of factory
expansion take place in the future. They're hiring. Right now, they have 14
job openings.

[http://www.rgj.com/story/news/2014/10/16/tesla-battery-
plant...](http://www.rgj.com/story/news/2014/10/16/tesla-battery-plant-jobs-
advertised/17341211/)

