Tesla quietly secures new facility, but its purpose remains unclear

Tesla has acquired a new warehouse location in Marysville, Washington, but has yet to announce what the new facility will be used for.

Since its founding, Tesla has been on a mad dash to ramp production. The automaker started with its Fremont, California facility but now assembles vehicles across three countries, with countless others in the works. Now, Tesla has acquired a new property in the United States, further expanding its footprint in its home market.

The new Tesla facility was initially reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal, which identified the freshly constructed warehouse as Tesla’s after an announcement from the construction company and property owner. According to its reporting, the 245,000-square-foot facility will be used for part assembly, though Tesla has yet to verify these claims. The newly leased facility is the first of many to be part of a massive new 5.1 million square foot manufacturing center home to numerous manufacturers on the West Coast of Washington State.

The idea of a small component supplying facility becoming part of Tesla’s production fleet in the United States certainly fits its MO, especially as it looks to expand battery manufacturing in North America to maintain its EV incentives.

Other hypotheses have already emerged regarding what the new facility could be used for, but they range in probability and practicality. Some have estimated the new warehouse could be used as a component or completed vehicle storage area. However, being so far from the nearest Tesla production facility, that seems impractical. Others have wondered if the new facility could work in conjunction with an upcoming Canadian gigafactory, but considering Tesla’s focus on Quebec and Ontario on the other side of the continent, that seems equally unlikely.

This new warehouse location enters an increasingly extensive portfolio of Tesla properties in the United States that have yet to be retrofitted for their intended purpose. Other locations include a roughly 600,000-square-foot facility just outside St. Louis and a 400,000-square-foot facility in Houston.