AUSTIN, Texas — (CultureMap Austin) Tesla has barely begun manufacturing electric vehicles at its new factory in east Travis County, and it’s already planning an expansion.
The Austin-based automaker is eyeing a 32-acre site adjacent to its auto manufacturing plant to build a nearly 1.6-million-square-foot industrial facility that would produce cathodes for battery manufacturing, as first reported by the Electrek industry website.
Tesla owns about 2,100 acres where the new 4.3-million-square-foot factory stands. The factory started producing vehicles late last year.
An application submitted earlier this month for an Austin building permit lists Colorado River Project LLC as a co-applicant for a project named “Cathode,” according to the Reuters news service. That’s the corporate name Tesla has used throughout the permitting process for the new factory. A spokeswoman for Austin Development Services Department told Reuters that the latest permit is for a Tesla cathode facility.
Reuters explains that cathodes are the most expensive component of a battery, and making them requires a lot of space and emits significant amounts of carbon dioxide.
For more, read CultureMap's full report.
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