Tesla Goes to Nevada

So it wasn’t a pizza factory. Greentech’s Eric Wesoff was one of the first with the news that Tesla Motors had chosen an industrial park outside Reno, Nevada as the site of its first gigawatt battery plant. The project will bring 6,500 jobs to the state. “Nevada likely offered Tesla one of the largest incentive packages in the history of the U.S. auto industry to lure the factory to a state with relatively little presence in automotive manufacturing,” reported the Wall Street Journal [sub required]. “The company needs to start construction soon to complete the factory by 2017, when it plans to roll out its third vehicle, an electric car called the Model III with a 200-mile range, that it aims to sell starting at $35,000.” Politico described the announcement as “a major victory to Nevada—and to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval, who launched a joint effort to convince the electric car maker to build its $5 billion gigafactory in the state.”