Originally published on EV Obsession.
Wow, if you thought he Gigafactory was insane already, try this news on for size: according to a Story County official, Dean Haymore, Tesla is planning 7 “blocks” (with one block being the under-construction Gigafactory). It has bought another 1,200 acres of land right next to the land it already owns and is building the Gigafactory on, more than doubling its acreage there, and is looking to buy another 350 acres.
If all 7 “blocks” are used as expected, the Tesla factory footprint there would go from 10 million square feet (original plan) to 24 million square feet. If you haven’t already done the math, that would make it the largest building (in terms of footprint) on Earth.
For more details, you can watch Dean Haymore’s presentation above.
–> Recommended: How Big Is The Tesla Gigafactory? (Graphics)
In case you haven’t followed the Tesla Gigafactory story as obsessively as some of us, a few things that I think are worth highlighting here are that Elon Musk has said we’ll need hundreds of gigafactories for the inevitable EV revolution, this first gigafactory is on track to start early (still ahead of schedule), this first gigafactory was originally supposed to be produce enough batteries for ~500,000 electric cars a year (by 2020), but initial indications of Tesla Powerwall demand have shown that it’s very strong and it is expected to push battery demand well over what the Tesla Gigafactory was planned to produce.
So, yeah, it wouldn’t be too surprising if Tesla decided to jack up its Gigafactory construction plans and crush the “largest building” record in the process.
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