The Travis County Commission has approved the incentive package for “Tesla Giga Texas” or “Tesla Giga Austin” that was seemingly all that was really needed to clinch the deal and get Tesla started on a gigafactory on its lands.
Tesla fans in the area quickly jumped onto Twitter to spill their glee.
Breaking news: Travis county commission approve Tesla Austin factory!
go Tesla! Get me some Cybertruck.@elonmusk @Tesmanian_com @TeslaPodcast @thirdrowtesla @Teslarati @mortenlund89 @ray4tesla @truth_tesla @TeslaMotorsClub @tes— Tomer Hacohen (@TomerHacohen) July 14, 2020
TOC Austin is 🔥fired up!
Travis County just gave Tesla a GO!@tesla@elonmusk
Will you exercise your option to purchase the land for your next factory? pic.twitter.com/oZI6nkOsB9— Tesla Owners of Austin (@AustinTeslaClub) July 14, 2020
And the news was reported by Austin Business Journal as well. The summary of that article is as follows: “Tesla has now secured incentives from the county government and Del Valle ISD for a massive gigafactory in East Austin that could employ 5,000 and churn out Cybertrucks and other vehicles.”
Naturally, it is not yet confirmed that Tesla will choose Travis County for its next gigafactory, rather than Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently popped in for a visit, but Texas has long been considered the favorite due to the tech scene and culture in Austin, SpaceX operations in Boca Chica, Elon Musk’s love for Texas, Texas’s big cultural brand, Texas being in the running for the first gigafactory (seemingly to the end), as well as other factors I’m surely forgetting right now.
Musk did visit the potential Tulsa site recently, and a local pizzeria offered up free pizzas to all of Tesla’s employees if the company chose that location.
We will faithfully report back if we get any confirmation that Tesla will take Travis County up on the offer and get to work with permits and construction, or if it decides the incentives are still not enough for its practically royal blood and isn’t ready to commit. In the meantime, those in the Austin area are partying and our condolences to the hilarious crew in Tulsa, who I still say have created the website of the year (warning to not click if you are offended by the F word).
Top photo by Kyle Field for CleanTechnica
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