Tesla Battery Gigafactory California electric car maker Tesla, in partnership with Japan’s Panasonic Corp., is building the world’s largest lithium ion battery factory at the 165-square-mile Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center 20 miles east of Reno. The industrial center encompasses about 60 percentv of Storey County’s land mass. Word that Tesla Motors is taking up residency in Northern Nevada has companies around the world doing a double-take of the Reno-Sparks area and inquiring about what the Silver State has to offer, an economic development official said. “It puts us not only on the national radar for site selectors and companies looking for locations in the West, but we’re getting calls from across the globe — Belgium, Germany, China,” said Mike Kazmierski, president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada. “What is often missed is all the secondary jobs. The companies that need to or want to be in the vicinity of Tesla,” Kazmierski said. “And then many other companies that just want to be in the area now that Tesla has identified this region as a great place for advanced manufacturing.” “Tesla moving to Nevada will create a domino effect as many more businesses will follow,” agreed Robert Hooper, executive director of the Northern Nevada Development Authority. A look at the $100 billion estimated economic impact from the Tesla Gigafactory: • 6,500 direct factory employees earning an average wage above $25 an hour • 3,000 construction jobs • $1.5 billion indirect tax revenue generated over 20 years • $400 million direct tax revenue generated beginning in 2024 • 16,000 indirect jobs once the factory is up and running • Overall job creation equal to 2 percent of state’s workforce and 11 percent of the region’s workforce • A 4 percent increase in the state’s GDP is expected and the region’s economic output is expected to jump by 20 percent Source: Governor’s Office of Economic Development
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