Tesla asks to build a giant new cathode factory for battery production next to ‘Gigafactory Texas’

Tesla has requested the construction of a giant new facility, ostensibly to produce cathode materials for battery manufacturing, next to “Gigafactory Texas” in Austin.

In 2020, Electrek first revealed that Tesla would be building its next Gigafactory in Austin. Later, it was confirmed that Tesla had acquired over 2,000 acres of land around the Colorado River east of the city. Two years later, Tesla has now built a giant building for the main factory of what is now called “Gigafactory Texas”.

Last month, it was confirmed that production of the Model Y had started at the new factory, and the automaker has also rolled out some battery cell production in the building. But with over 2,000 acres, Tesla is expected to roll out several new projects around the main factory.

Last year it was revealed that Tesla was working on a new “Project Bobcat” on around 97 acres at the site. Now Tesla has applied for another project, codenamed “Project Cathode,” on 32 acres at the site.

In the building application obtained by Electrek (hats off to Vinod), it says it’s going to be used as an “industrial facility”:

The applicant is proposing a facility for industrial use and related improvements.

Tesla is not directly named on the application, but Michael Loftis of engineering firm Kimley-Horn is named as the applicant, which he and the company have also been named for previous construction permits for the Gigafactory Texas project. The project is also listed as being on a parcel of land next to the Colorado River where Gigafactory Texas is located.

In the green below you can see all of the land acquired by Tesla and the orange dot is where the main building is:

From the name of the new project, it is quite clear that it will be a cathode production plant. Tesla originally announced plans to build its own “cathode facility” at its 2020 “Battery Day” presentation.

Drew Baglino, senior vice president of engineering, said at the time:

We’re going to start building our own cathode plant in North America and leveraging all the North American resources that exist for nickel and lithium, and just by doing that, just locating our supply chain and cathode production, we can reduce the miles traveled by all materials that end up in the cathode by 80%.

Tesla has since taken steps to secure lithium and nickel supplies from North American sources, including agreements with Piedmont Lithium and Talon Metals. Several additional similar agreements are expected in the coming years to accelerate the production of critical battery metals in North America.

On Battery Day, Tesla unveiled new cathode chemistry that allows for much simpler and cheaper production.

It was later revealed that Tesla had acquired the technology from a Canadian startup.

In an update on its progress in producing its new 4680 battery cell last month, Tesla confirmed that it has already deployed battery manufacturing equipment at Gigafactory Texas and some is already in use. A cathode manufacturing plant next to the plant would locate more of the battery cell production and could help achieve greater volume.

Tesla has previously talked about producing over 100 GWh of battery cells at Gigafactory Texas.

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