Gary Zhou 
Each of Tesla’s factories is immense, but they seem to be getting even larger with each iteration. This does seem to be the case with Gigafactory Mexico, as the facility will be sitting in a complex that’s far larger than the Giga Texas site.
As per recent comments from a Mexico official on Thursday, Tesla’s planned factory in Nuevo Leon will be built on a site spanning almost 4,200 acres in an industrial zone. Jesus Nava, the mayor of Santa Catarina, also noted that Tesla is acquiring the site from private owners, and construction is expected to start in three months.
Considering the size of the Giga Mexico complex, the site would be more than double the size of Mexico City’s International Airport, as noted in a Reuters report. It will also be substantially larger than the Gigafactory Texas complex, which is listed by Tesla as 2,500 acres.
Apart from the size of the complex, Nava also mentioned that Tesla would be revealing the vehicles that would be produced at Giga Mexico when the facility holds its groundbreaking event. Estimates suggest that a groundbreaking event for Giga Mexico would happen in about three months.
The Mexican official also stated that initially, Tesla would spend $5 billion and employ about 5,000 workers at the facility. Later on, Tesla is expected to invest a total of $10 billion into the factory and hire up to 10,000 workers. This would be of great benefit to Nuevo Leon, as the area will host one of the largest electric vehicle factories in the world.
“This will bring a great economic spillover,” Nava said.
The output of Giga Mexico has not been mentioned by Tesla yet, though a senior Mexican official reportedly noted that the facility would be producing about 1 million cars annually. That’s roughly equivalent to the company’s global output in 2021.
While Mexico President Lopez Obrador has noted that he would withhold permits for Giga Mexico if there were not enough water in the region, Nava said that the project was never at risk. The official also remarked that Tesla uses recycled water in its operations, and companies that use such strategies typically consume minimal liters of water per second.
“It was never at risk … it added an extra factor for executives when making a decision,” Nava said.
