Elon Musk made a promise on Thursday at the opening of Tesla’s new Gigafactory in Texas that the company will massively scale up production in 2023, and also showed off its latest Cybertruck prototype. In addition, he hinted that the company will launch a dedicated Robo-taxi.
The Texas Gigafactory, located just outside Austin, is Tesla’s newest and largest Gigafactory, as well as the company’s new corporate headquarters. With more than 10 million square feet of floor space, the factory brings together all parts of Tesla’s battery and vehicle assembly under one roof.
According to Musk, raw materials will go into one end of the building and come out the other to make finished vehicles — containing the automaker’s new batteries and structural battery packs.
Much of the output from the Texas Gigafactory will include the Tesla Model Y, which Musk estimates will be 500,000 vehicles a year. Next year, the Tesla Cybertruck electric pickup will also go into production to end a nearly three-year wait for early preorders.
At the launch event, the first Model Y crossovers built at the Texas factory appeared on stage, followed by an all-new Cybertruck prototype that — among other minor changes — lacked door handles. Musk said the pickup could sense the driver’s approach and then open the door on its own.
The Texas Gigafactory’s contribution to Model Y and eventual Cybertruck production will be critical to the massive scale-up of production. Musk said Tesla has sold more than 1 million electric vehicles in the past 12 months, which is undoubtedly a huge number, but still only a mere 80 million of the 80 million vehicles the rest of the auto industry has delivered globally.
A small piece. Encouraged by this news, Musk said that Tesla is ready to develop to a scale that no company in human history has ever achieved, and he also predicted that there will be a wave of new products next year.
At the event, Musk also previewed a dedicated robot taxi, which looked quite futuristic, but unfortunately did not reveal its expected timetable. Musk also mentioned that the automaker’s upcoming Semi and Roadster models will also enter production next year, while Tesla’s fully self-driving technology will reach all North American customers in 2023.
The Tesla robot — now called Optimus — is also still in development. Musk revealed near the end of the show that the robot is expected to enter production next year.
Given the CEO’s history of hyperbole and over-promising product timelines, it’s probably better to take most of Musk’s claims with a grain of salt. But there’s no denying the pace of Tesla’s growth and the actual size of the Texas Gigafactory. Tesla’s other factories include its former headquarters and factory in Fremont, California, two Gigafactories in Nevada and New York, a Gigafactory in Shanghai and the recently opened Gigafactory in Berlin-Brandenburg.