Tesla’s Austin Impact - New Gigafactory Slated for May 2021 Completion

Tesla is well known for transforming the auto industry through innovation and sustainability over the recent years. Due to success of the company over the past year alone, Elon Musk’s company continues to expand quicker than anyone has imagined. With the upcoming release of the new Tesla Cybertruck, Tesla made plans to develop a “gigafactory” that will help meet the demands as well as provide more economic growth for the city of choice.

By early 2020, the State of Texas and City of Austin won the bid for Tesla’s plan to construct their fourth factory in Travis County. This deal was made in part by the county offering Tesla approximately $13.9M in tax incentives as well as other incentives that would benefit the new factory. The site will be located on approximately 2,000-acres of land near the Colorado River and close to the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and will produce the Cybertruck, electric semi truck, Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

The factory plans to bring approximately 5,000 jobs to the county ranging from operational to managerial positions with an annual average salary of $47k. This initiative gives Austin a great economic boost for residents that need good paying jobs. Another positive note is that Tesla has agreed to better wages and worker protections such as paying janitorial and food service workers the same $15/hr minimum wage as entry-level factory workers will make.

The completion of the project is slated for May 2021 and will begin production shortly thereafter. With the attraction of a high powered company like Tesla, Texas continues to push to attract more innovative and tech industries to the state to support fast-growing cities. The overall objective is to provide an economic environment to allow companies to innovate and succeed as well as provide job opportunities for Texas residents that will help boost the economy as a whole.