The landscape is starting to change at Tesla’s newly acquired plot in Santa Catarina, Mexico, where it will build its biggest gigafactory yet.
Construction machinery has been spotted at the plant site, which is located just outside of the city of Monterrey in the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León.
According to local newspaper Milenio cited by Electrek, work has started at Gigafactory Mexico with the first construction machinery being spotted at the site on August 9.
The publication also shared an aerial video showing a backhoe loader that has started ground leveling work along the highway to Saltillo, at its junction with the Anillo Periférico de Monterrey. The site preparations are likely done to create an exit and a road to the factory site.
In addition to the heavy equipment, the video also reveals cones on the road that serve to alert motorists of construction activities. This may not look like much, but it seems to be the first step toward large-scale construction work at Tesla‘s site.
It’s worth pointing out that the Nuevo Leon government and Tesla have yet to officially announce the issuance of a building permit. In June, Nuevo Leon governor, Samuel Alejandro García Sepúlveda, said the permit would be coming soon, noting that the first stages of the factory’s buildout were about to begin. Then in July, he said that all the permits are advancing and that Tesla could be informed at “any moment” that the first stone can be laid.
Considering the governor’s comments and the fact the site is already being prepared for the start of construction work, the issuance of the permit should be a formality. As a result, we should also expect a groundbreaking event rather sooner than later.
Gigafactory Mexico is of huge importance for Tesla’s ambitious goal to ramp annual production to 20 million vehicles by the end of the decade.
Announced in March 2023 at Tesla’s Investor Day event, Giga Mexico will build the company’s next-generation platform, which will underpin an entry-level model expected to cost around $25,000 and a robotaxi.
Given the factory’s importance for Tesla’s production goals, the EV maker has said it plans to build it in record time. The company has suggested that Gigafactory Mexico could even beat Gigafactory Shanghai’s record construction speed of nine months from breaking ground to production.
Following the announcement of Giga Mexico, local officials estimated that vehicle production could start sometime in 2024. However, later reports stated that the plant would start churning out EVs in the first quarter of 2025.
