Elon Musk’s Gigafactory Opens for Business

Surrounded by a carefully chosen selection of guests, Elon Musk officially opened his gigantic Gigafactory on Friday night — or part of it, at least. While Musk enthused (after a pep-talk encouraging him to “smile a lot“) that he was “really excited about revitalizing manufacturing,” the grand unveil of the battery production plant was actually of just 14 percent of the facility’s eventual 6 million square feet of floorspace. Still, inside are signs of what’s to come. Panasonic has installed a series of two-storey-tall production lines and Tesla a slew of robots that will both help employees—eventually 10,000 of them—turn raw materials entering the factory into finished batteries. The overarching plan is to use the huge factory to drive down the cost-per-kilowatt hour of batteries that will, among other things, be used in Tesla’s upcoming affordable sedan, the Model 3. The factory needs to succeed if the car’s proposed $35,000 price tag is to become a reality.