Tesla Factory in Mexico will Occupy about 20 Times the Area of the Shanghai Factory

According to a Mexican official on Thursday (March 2), Tesla is planning to build a factory in the northern border state of Nuevo León, which will cover nearly 4,200 acres, nearly twice the size of its Texas super factory and 20 times the size of its Shanghai factory.

Jesus Nava, mayor of Santa Catarina, Nuevo Leon, where the factory is located, said in an interview that Tesla is buying the land needed to build the factory from private owners.

The land, which is located in an industrial area, covers nearly 4,200 acres, more than twice the size of Mexico City's international airport, he said.

For comparison, Tesla's factory in Austin, Texas, US covers an area of only 2,500 acres, while Tesla's Shanghai factory covers an area of only about 212 acres (860,000 square metres).

The Mexican government is quite proud to say that the plant will be the largest electric vehicle factory in the world. The new facility is located in Santa Catarina, near Monterrey, one of Mexico's largest cities, and just a few hours from the US-Mexico border.

Nava said Tesla will announce exactly which models it will produce when it breaks ground on the new plant in Mexico, which is scheduled to start within three months.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the ambitious project on Wednesday. A day earlier, Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador had just said that Tesla would build an assembly plant in north Mexico.

Nava added that Tesla will initially invest about $5 billion and employ about 5,000 people, which would make Tesla one of the most invested automakers in Mexico. Ultimately, Tesla envisages pouring $10 billion into the project and employing as many as 10,000 workers.