Tesla Motors recently started the operation of its Gigafactory located in Nevada. Currently, the manufacturing plant is busy with the mass production of lithium ion batteries. It was said that the newly-built semi-complete plant cost around $5 billion.

The Tesla Gigafactory has been initially tasked to manufacture battery cells for Tesla's Powerpack 2 and Powerwall 2 products. The batteries are going to be utilized as power source for the company's electricity storage products and its Model 3 rides.

Moreover, as stated on Tesla's blog site that was published on Jan. 4, the factory will then proceed to fabricate cells for most of its car models at the second quarter of 2017. More types of batteries are expected to be manufactures at the plant later on.

The enormous Tesla Gigafactory lies in the desert of Nevada and while it is only estimated to be lower than 30 percent complete as of now, the finished parts are already usable and this is why the factory was able to begin its operations. The 13.6 million square foot plant may take several more years to be fully completed.

"The Gigafactory is being built in phases so that Tesla, Panasonic, and other partners can begin manufacturing immediately inside the finished sections and continue to expand thereafter," The Tesla Team wrote on the blog. "Our phased approach also allows us to learn and continuously improve our construction and operational techniques as we continue to drive down the cost of energy storage."

Incidentally, Reuters mentioned that the name gigafactory was coined after the factory's goal of producing battery capacity of 35 gigawatt-hours annually. Tesla emphasized that it hopes to attain this goal by 2018.

Advantages of the New Plant

The Tesla Gigafactory can mass produce which means it can immensely increase production so the prices of batteries will definitely go down. The boosted automation process will greatly improve the output so this lowers the the needed capital investment for production.

Additionally, the relocation and bringing together most of the production processes under one roof is also one of the main reasons for lower cost of the products. Likewise, dropping the prices will allow Tesla to make its products available to more people.

Lastly, the construction of the Tesla Gigafactory will create jobs in the city. Once the plant is fully completed, it is expected to generate from twenty to thirty thousand jobs.