While states like Texas and Arizona try and entice Tesla to build the major battery-producing Gigafactory there, the battle may have already been won by Reno, Nevada.
The Phoenix Business Journal wrote up that the Reno-Tahoe area of Nevada is tipped to be leading the race to grab the factory that could make enough batteries for 500,000 cars by 2020 – beating out sites in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
A source claims Tesla is looking into permits and zoning for prospective sites, including an airport-area site that sits along the railroad that could take parts from the Gigafactory to Tesla's Fremont, Calif. assembly plant. That proximity makes it more attractive than states in the southwest.
Rick Perry will be disappointed, no doubt, as officials in Texas are scurrying to try and change some of the laws that have created problems for selling Teslas there in order to secure the jobs the Gigafactory would bring. The fact Tesla execs were spotted in Texas recently in a reported Gigafactory mission may indicate that state is still very much in the running.
Arizona, meanwhile, has legislators working to OK direct sales that would allow Tesla to sell its cars there in the hopes it will raise its chances of getting the Gigafactory.
But the points made in the Phoenix Business Journal story make Nevada look like a natural fit for Tesla.
Photo: AP