Tesla Motors Inc. is pushing to finish its "Gigafactory" a few years ahead of schedule to accommodate the surge of demand for its highly anticipated sedan, the Tesla Model 3.
The $5 billion battery factory is expected to produce batteries to not only for its Tesla Model 3, but also to provide a power plant for new types of vehicles, which CEO Elon Musk had revealed are under development, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The motoring company had doubled its manpower working on the "Gigafactory" with the hopes in making the new factory operational by 2017, which was previously set to open in 2020.
Tesla had added workers to a total of about 1,000 employees, which maximizes construction to seven days a week with the workers shuffling two shifts.
The Model 3 is slated to launch by next year, which prompted the company to scramble to finish years ahead of schedule to accommodate the surge of demand for the eco-friendly sedan.
The motoring company is aiming to build a massive battery factory, which is expected to be about the size of New York's Central Park. Tesla is building the "Gigafactory" just near Reno, Nevada.
By the time the mega factory is open for operation, it would effectively double the world's lithium-ion batteries production. At the current pace of this progress, the world is looking at a drop in battery prices, which analysts calculate to fall to $100 per killowatt hour, according to Bloomberg.
If all goes well for the electric car company, it would help reduce the total price of battery production by 2018. Musk had also stated that the mega factory could effectively employ about 10,000 people in just a span of a few years.
Tesla's Model 3's starting price is at a relatively low cost of $35,000, which is primarily due to reduced battery costs. The car company had announced its cheap eco-friendly sedan on March of this year, which quickly racked up millions of pre-orders, Times of India reported.
The rise in demand sees the company aim for a 5 million production vehicle output annually by 2018.
