Tesla Seeks Final Approval for Gigafactory Texas, Moves Closer to Official Opening

On Friday, Tesla filed for final approval of five of the production facilities at its under-development Gigafactory in Austin, TX, with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation and the Texas Appraisal Review Board (ARB) — via @SawyerMerritt.

The filings disclose exact construction start and completion dates for each of the production sites, along with estimated cost. According to the filings, Tesla is seeking approval to operate the following facilities:

  • Body In White (Cost: $182 million USD)
  • Stamping (Cost: $150million USD)
  • Casting (Cost: $109 million USD)
  • Paint (Cost: $126 million USD)
  • General Assembly (Cost:  $493 million USD)

The filings for each of the facilities list a construction start date of January 9, 2020, and the completion date as December 31, 2021. If construction on Giga Texas’ main production sites is completed by year’s end, we could see the facility go online as early as January 2022.

The total area for all five of the facilities combined is outlined as a whopping 4,286,680 sq. ft. in the filings. Construction for Gigafactory Texas already broke 8 million sq. ft. back in August, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk said earlier this year that the site would be “almost a mile long” once completed.

Gigafactory Texas has been gearing up for production for several months now. In August, we saw images and videos of the first pre-production Model Y units manufactured at the facility. Last month, Tesla also shared images of Giga Texas’ interior.

The latest flyover of Giga Texas can be seen below by Jeff Roberts:

YouTube video

Tesla will begin production at Giga Texas with the Model Y and hopes to start manufacturing its Cybertruck at the facility in late 2022. Speaking of Gigafactories, final permit approval for Giga Berlin is also expected by year’s end.