Breaking Ground at GigaMexico
After over four months of waiting, the government of Nuevo León, Mexico has confirmed that Tesla could be given permission to begin construction of their new Gigafactory “at any moment”.
Tesla’s next great factory has been anticipated since even before the company announced its location during their Investor Day Event on March 1st. And once it had been revealed that the facility would be in northern Mexico, it seemed as though Tesla would begin construction at their usual breakneck speed.
But on June 29th, internal reports from the company to their partners in China stated that the new Gigafactory would likely be delayed long enough to push its production start all the way into 2025.
Without much more data at that time, many thought the delay would likely be because of the location. GigaMexico is being constructed on a patch of arid desert near Santa Catarina - and doing any large-scale construction there would involve working around certain environmental issues - supplying water to the construction crews being chief among them.
But according to Governor Samuel Alejandro García Sepúlveda of Nuevo León, it was actually paperwork that had stood in Tesla’s way for this long.
Any build project requires a binderful of permits to be checked and signed - but this is a colossal factory, being built by a foreign company, in an area where water conservation is a real issue - so it makes sense that even the extremely friendly local government would have to spend some time clearing all the permits needed to start construction.
But, as Governor García Sepúlveda told local news outlet “Milenio” on July 7th,
“[...] all the permits, for the environment, energy, water, everything is already checked, it is advancing.”
Which is great news of course - Tesla’s work crews are probably starting to transport materials and equipment to the site as we speak - but this also means that Tesla hasn’t actually had a chance to see if the local conditions will actually impede construction yet.
This is likely the reason for their communications with their supply partners in China at the end of June - because if the permits really are just days away from being authorised, then Tesla had to know that. The local government is in pretty constant communication with the company, and would likely have kept them up-to-speed on what was happening with their construction status.
And we know that the two entities are in close communication because of the comments made by officials close to the project. Remember that new report from the Milenio on July 7th? Well, the Governor also told their reporters that the new model of vehicle Tesla intends to build at GigaMexico is now in the final stages of its design, and that all the production lines, software, and other major factory infrastructure has already been planned out.
We’ll circle back to that bit about Tesla’s new model of vehicle in a moment - because it’s that last part that gives us our biggest clue that Tesla knows building GigaMexico is going to take longer than they would like: They’ve already been planning their execution.
This is a pretty common practice in large-scale commercial construction. As we mentioned previously, permits can take awhile to get. Large industrial projects often require exemptions and exceptions to certain local laws that have to be argued over. Environmental impact studies often have to be completed. Plans and blueprints have to be inspected. Local communities have to be informed.
All of this means that project managers often have a lot of time to prepare - and that time is usually spent looking over the site and identifying problems that will end up delaying the build.
So, by now the project managers know where they will be getting materials and workers from, and how far they will have to travel to get to the site - as well as what it will take to keep the workers safe. Knowing exact site logistics, and calculating the various factors involved means that they would have a pretty clear idea of how difficult it will be to build this factory - and certainly enough to tell their partners when they’ll need the components to begin making their new vehicle.
Speaking of, it’s time we circled back to that bit of information. The Governor mentioned that his administration had been given information that Tesla’s new vehicle was in the final stage of design - allowing Tesla to make plans right down to the production lines and software.
That’s some pretty huge news considering no one has caught so much as a glimpse of a tarp-covered mystery car - and Tesla-watchers are pretty good at spotting things coming out of the company’s factories.
It’s possible that Tesla meant that the concept design has been just about completed, which would make sense. Especially with GigaMexico’s production start being pushed back to 2025, there wouldn’t be a huge rush to get a prototype built - they wouldn’t even have a production line to test parts on.
Getting word that the permits are just about ready is very good news regardless of the extra time it took. Tesla is really banking on GigaMexico to be their next showcase facility - and the rest of us would really love to get a new, cheaper model of EV.