Tesla will spend $3.6 billion to expand its gigafactory in Reno, Nevada so it can begin producing the all-electric Semi at the site.
The investment will see the electric car manufacturer boost the factory’s manufacturing footprint by an additional 4 million square-feet and add 3,000 new employees. Tesla did not state how many Semis will be produced annually at the factory.
The investment will also be used to establish a battery factory producing 100 GWh worth of the carmaker’s 4680 cells. This will be enough to power 1.5 million light-duty vehicles annually and represents a significant increase from the 37 GWh of batteries that the site currently produces.
Read: Pepsi’s Tesla Semi Spotted Apparently Being Towed Away
Tesla has not released any other details about its expansion plans, nor has it said when construction of the new facilities will begin nor when they will be finished.
Production of the Tesla Semi started late last year with the first units handed over to PepsiCo and Frito-Lay in December. The all-electric truck can travel up to 500 miles (805 km) on a single charge with a total loaded weight of 82,000 lbs (37,194 kg).
Another key piece of technology found in the Semi is its 1,000-volt architecture that allows for rapid charging speeds through the automaker’s new ‘Megawatt’ charging system. While Tesla has not said how long it will take to charge the Semi’s battery pack, a charging speed of 1000 kW is almost triple the speeds achievable by the likes of the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, and Genesis GV60.
