On a huge plot of land near Austin in the US state of Texas, Tesla has been building another Gigafactory since last summer, with a slightly larger footprint than the main building of the German electric car factory near Berlin, which is being driven at the same time. Both are scheduled to start production in the course of this year, and new statements from Tesla boss Elon Musk indicate that Giga Texas is likely to be a little behind Giga Berlin in terms of the number of jobs for the time being.
Up to 40,000 jobs in Giga Berlin
According to information so far, the German Tesla factory in Grünheide, Brandenburg, will produce up to 500,000 Model Y per year in its first phase. For this purpose, Tesla has been looking for workers together with the employment agency since last year, and the country is preparing for a huge influx. A current planning document confirms that Tesla alone wants to fill 12,000 positions for Giga Berlin by the end of this year. 40,000 jobs are expected there by 2026.
What Tesla is actually planning to do in Texas, on the other hand, is far less publicly known – perhaps because the approval processes there are faster or more discreet. In the latest quarterly report from the end of January 2021, only Model Y (“under construction”) and Cybertruck (“under development”) are named for Giga Texas. CEO Musk announced the factory in the state in July 2020 with the information that Model Y, Model 3, Cybertruck and Tesla Semi would be built there. And now he named a staff figure for it, which is high, but initially noticeably lower than in the German factory.
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“For Giga Texas alone, more than 10,000 people will be needed by 2022”, Musk wrote on Twitter on Wednesday and also made some location advertising: “5 minutes from the airport, 15 minutes from downtown, right on the Colorado River”. Tesla also seems to want to fill a five-digit number of positions in Texas in the first step, but 2000 fewer than in Brandenburg, and sees time until the end of next year instead of just this year.
Tesla is planning cell production at both locations
Giga Berlin is also ahead of Austin in Texas when it comes to job advertisements. Tesla is looking for hundreds of employees for both locations on its website – on Thursday evening there were around 350 for Grünheide and 280 for Austin (including some jobs outside the Gigafactory). Tesla also wants to hire several battery manufacturing specialists for both of them. According to CEO Musk, the Gigafactory near Berlin is set to become the first in the world where Tesla produces its own 4680 cells on a large scale. The number of open cell positions for Giga Texas is significantly higher, but Tesla began filling them in Germany last year.
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