Tesla’s Gigafactory Now Open for Business

This might be an event that will mark the history of the automobile.

Tesla’s Gigafactory battery plant is now operational. Even if the five-billion-dollar plant isn’t 100% completed, and far from it, it can nonetheless start producing battery packs.

• Also: The Car Guide Visits Tesla’s Factory
• Also: Exclusive: Tesla Model S P90D: A High-Speed 5- or 7-Seat Electric Rocket Ship

The gigantic complex will practically double the world’s lithium battery production capacity, batteries that will essentially be used in the company’s new Model 3 sedan.

The Model 3, expected in 2017, will be one of the first accessible electric vehicles on the market with a range of more than 350 km on a single charge, along with the Chevrolet Bolt EV.

However, since Tesla is planning on selling hundreds of thousands of vehicles annually within the next few years, the company badly needed to find a battery supplier, one that could provide them with a quantity that currently surpasses current global production.

What could be better than to build the batteries in-house? Tesla could even supply other manufacturers.

On the other hand, Volkswagen just announced a multi-billion-dollar investment to build its own plant, in order to provide electrification to its own brands. In other words, Tesla is only the first of its kind, yet it can be saluted as a pioneer.