Tesla on Wednesday applied for a permit to expand its Austin, Texas, factory, adding a building to make battery cathodes, according to city documents and a spokesman. The project, called Cathode, listed Colorado River Project LLC as a co-applicant in a building permit application filed Wednesday.
This is the name Tesla uses during the state and local approval process for the new factory in Texas.
I can confirm that this was issued for the Tesla project, and this permit was issued for a cathode building, a spokeswoman for Austin’s Development Services said Thursday, adding that the city has no Further information.
The new building will expand Tesla’s existing car factory, which is located near the airport in Austin’s eastern suburbs. The new building will be nearly 1.6 million square feet, according to documents received by the city of Austin.
Earlier this year, Tesla began producing cars at its Austin plant. Last September, CEO Elon Musk said it planned to build a cathode factory as part of its battery production plant.
The cathode is the most expensive component in a battery, and its production requires a lot of space and emits a lot of carbon dioxide.