There's nothing new there. Musk has been talking about how many "gigafactories" making batteries the world would need for a long time. And even battery manufacturers were a bit taken aback by the scale proposed.
> Three years ago, when the Gigafactory was first proposed, "I thought it was crazy," said Yamada. "At that time, production capacity of this Gigafactory would exceed total production of the industry. Not Panasonic. Not Japanese companies. All Japanese, Korean, and Chinese companies combined. I thought it was a crazy idea.
"But I was crazy. And I was wrong. After seeing extraordinary success of the announcing of Model 3, there is a strong demand for this battery. So, three years ago I thought this was a crazy idea. But I was crazy at the time
It's not the battery cell production that is the real issue. Battery cell production is a big issue, but production can be increased in a few years to keep pace with demand if the raw materials are available.
The new aspect is the price signal that Lithium is now sending. This means that lithium will limit the ability to increase battery production and that battery prices are not going to decline as they have in the past. The history of commodities means this situation is more likely to hold for a decade than a year.
> Three years ago, when the Gigafactory was first proposed, "I thought it was crazy," said Yamada. "At that time, production capacity of this Gigafactory would exceed total production of the industry. Not Panasonic. Not Japanese companies. All Japanese, Korean, and Chinese companies combined. I thought it was a crazy idea.
"But I was crazy. And I was wrong. After seeing extraordinary success of the announcing of Model 3, there is a strong demand for this battery. So, three years ago I thought this was a crazy idea. But I was crazy at the time