Cars

Tesla Cybertruck Gigafactory will be in central US, possibly Nashville, Musk says

The new factory will support Model Y production, too, and a report floated that Nashville, Tennessee, may be on the shortlist.

Steven Ewing Former managing editor

Steven Ewing spent his childhood reading car magazines, making his career as an automotive journalist an absolute dream job. After getting his foot in the door at Automobile while he was still a teenager, Ewing found homes on the mastheads at Winding Road magazine, Autoblog and Motor1.com before joining the CNET team in 2018. He has also served on the World Car Awards jury. Ewing grew up ingrained in the car culture of Detroit -- the Motor City -- before eventually moving to Los Angeles. In his free time, Ewing loves to cook, binge trash TV and play the drums.

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Steven Ewing

March 13, 2020 3:29 p.m. PT

2 min read

Tesla Cybertruck promo — Coming soon to an assembly line near you.
Nick Miotke/Roadshow

CEO Elon Musk sure loves his tweets, and has taken to social media to announce some more details about the upcoming Cybertruck. According to a new tweet on Tuesday, Musk is in the process of scouting locations for the Gigafactory where the Cybertruck will be built, and he's eyeing Middle America.

Scouting locations for Cybertruck Gigafactory. Will be central USA.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2020

"Central USA" is a pretty broad descriptor. It could realistically mean anywhere as far west as Colorado or Utah or as far east as Kentucky or Tennessee. It's unclear whether Tesla is working with any state governments for tax incentives to bring production to a specific area.

A report from TechCrunch on Tuesday evening cited sources close to the discussion and floated Nashville, Tennessee, as a possible candidate for the new Gigafactory. According to the report, Tesla has spoken to officials there about setting up production and made a shortlist of contenders. Tesla did not immediately return Roadshow's request for comment on the report.

But that's not all. Musk also says he wants to use this facility for Model Y production. Based on his initial tweet (below), we originally thought Musk was looking for an additional facility on the East Coast, but the CEO later clarified that the Cybertruck Gigafactory will also be used to build Model Y crossovers destined for eastern regions.

Model Y production for east coast too
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2020

In addition to the company's factory in Fremont, California, Tesla recently opened its second site in Shanghai to produce the and Model Y. Another plant is expected to come online in Germany in the near future, as well.

These tweets come on the heels of Tesla celebrating a big production milestone. The company built its millionth car -- a red Model Y -- on Monday in Fremont.