Since it was announced that Tesla intended to install an assembly plant in Mexico, began a long evaluation process among the states that raised their hands to house the millionaire investment of tycoon Elon Musk, entities such as Hidalgo or Michoacán, even other countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Colombia and Indonesia offered their territories, in the end Nuevo León was the state chosen to host TESLA’s new Giga Factory, in an announcement made by Musk current CEO at Investor Day.
The new plant is expected to generate up to 35,000 direct and indirect jobs in Mexico.
Extent and location.
According to an investigation carried out by the specialized media outlet, Cluster Industrial, the plant will be placed on a property in the municipality of Santa Catarina that is located on a corner between the Monterrey peripheral ring and federal highway 40 Matehuala-Monterrey.
Within the vicinity where the new Tesla plant will be located is a golf course called Terralta, a substation of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), as well as some industrial parks of other firms such as Gohner, which are called Industrial Diamante, Finsa Santa Catarina I and II and Industrial Advance.
According to official information issued by the governor of Nuevo León, Samuel García, Tesla has as a challenge that this plant is built in record time and is ready in less than 9 months. TESLA intends to continue with the reduction of construction times of its plants, the Nevada plant was built in one year and two months, the Texas plant in one year and finally the Shanghai plant in 9 months so the Mexico plant is expected to reduce time.
The extension of the new Giga Factory, according to an analysis carried out by the Industrial Cluster portal would have an approximate of 800 meters long by 420 meters wide, it is expected that the land will have an area of 512 thousand square meters, of which, 324 thousand square meters will be destined specifically for the assembly plant, The rest will be used for parking lots, entrances, maneuvering yards, among others. There are reports that Tesla’s land to locate the plant could allocate up to more than a thousand hectares in total, which would make it the largest in Mexico as far as vehicle assemblers are concerned.
The new plant will require 10 billion dollars in investments of several phases, the first would amount to between 5 and 6 billion dollars according to data from the Government of Nuevo León. This is not something new, currently Tesla has an estimated 28 billion dollars invested worldwide and has an investment goal of up to 175 billion dollars in order to produce 20 million cars per year.
Vans or cars? What is Tesla going to build in Nuevo León?
According to the information released at Investor Day, it is expected that cars will be assembled in Nuevo León that help increase Tesla’s manufacturing footprint, which would have a 48V voltage architecture, a permanent magnetic motor and need 40 percent less production area. to have a 50 percent lower cost.
National media in Mexico say that it would be the Model 2, which would be focused on being an «economic» vehicle compared to the Model 3 and which has been in Tesla’s plans.
Without clarity at the moment on Tesla’s production line in Mexico, the US company’s shares fell 5.85% a day after the announcement, which meant its worst decline since January 30, 2023. To express questions about the size, content and performance of the vehicle that will be assembled in Mexico, Elon Musk limited himself to saying that in the future there will be a product event, Lars Moravy, vice president of vehicle engineering at Tesla, promised to go «as fast as they can.»
Why did Tesla choose Mexico?
The Engadget Auto portal ensures that Elon Musk set his eyes on Aztec lands after a call he had with Marcelo Ebrard, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) of Mexico in 2021 in which the tycoon owner of Tesla requested supply support from his factories due to the losses generated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In January 2022 Musk announced the plans for new factories, in that year the SRE of Mexico raised its hand for the firm to invest in Mexico, so, as of February 2022, Tesla officials visited some prospects in the country to be installed, among the states highlighted Nuevo León, Hidalgo, State of Mexico and Puebla.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador president of Mexico said that Nuevo León was not a good option for Tesla because there was no water, Elon Musk insisted on helping with the shortage, explained that the automotive industry is low consumption and the proposal contemplates only using treated water.
Samuel García governor of Nuevo León gave more details, commented that Tesla offered aquifer well exploration services to make them more efficient, which would be achieved through The Boring Company, a company also owned by Elon Musk that makes tunnels for transportation with first world drills.
Samuel Garcia said that Musk did not express concern about the issue of water, since Tesla has factories in Nevada and California, which would be land «much drier than Nuevo León», the tycoon said «being used to dealing with crises or water stresses».
In the end, Nuevo León in Mexico was the winner of a long career that began even years ago and will now house the assembly plant of one of the most valuable companies in the world, Tesla would continue with investments in Mexico through battery plants and other projects in the aerospace sector.
