(Bloomberg) — Party boy Elon Musk is promising a blowout for his closest acolytes Thursday night to celebrate the opening of a new Tesla Inc. factory in Austin, Texas.
And while the carmaker received a permit to host as many as 15,000 people for the invitation-only “Cyber Rodeo,” Musk tweeted that “the door won’t be super strict.”
Photos and video footage of the construction site published by fans show art installations, multiple stages and a sea of Texas-made Model Y sport utility vehicles apparently waiting to be shipped to customers. Musk, Tesla’s chief executive officer, tweeted that the “biggest party on Earth” will start cooking at 8 p.m. and that he’d address the crowd about an hour later. Tesla has promised to livestream the festivities.
The $1 billion factory is critical to Tesla’s expansion. The company has been operating around capacity at its Fremont, California, plant since the heady days of 2018, when it erected a giant tent in the parking lot to boost output of the Model 3 sedan. The carmaker’s furious growth over the last two years is largely thanks to a factory outside Shanghai. In October, Tesla hosted some 9,000 people to fete the opening of a plant outside Berlin.
The Texas facility will be Tesla’s second automotive plant in the U.S., able eventually to pump out 500,000 vehicles a year, Musk has said. Tesla delivered more than 936,000 vehicles worldwide in 2021.
Tesla broke ground on the Austin factory less than two years ago. Initial output will consist of Model Y SUVs. The coming Cybertruck pickup is slated to follow, as might a Semi big rig that is in development.
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