Tesla acquires more land in Texas for future expansion, battery factory?

Tesla is acquiring more land in Austin for future expansions — potentially a battery factory?

After months of going through the process to secure approval from the local government, Tesla announced in July that it selected a site outside of Austin to build its next Gigafactory in the US.

Much has been said about the size of the piece of land.

The 2,000-acre land is Tesla’s largest property to date and offers some great potential for expansions.

Yet, we now learn that Tesla is adding more properties near the site.

Texas’ Statesman reports that the automaker acquired another 381-acre piece of land next to the current Gigafactory construction site:

Continuing at full speed with development of its electric vehicle assembly plant in southeastern Travis County, Tesla recently purchased 381 acres adjacent to its existing 2,100-acre site at Harold Green Road and Texas 130, deed records show.

The new piece of land not only increases Tesla’s total property, but it also adds multiple points of access from existing roads to the factory site.

Tesla is also reportedly looking at another piece of land nearby:

Tesla also is believed to be pursuing additional land purchases in Southeast Austin along the Texas 130 corridor, according to local real estate developers knowledgeable about the area.

Tesla Gigafactory Texas is expected to be more than an electric vehicle production facility.

On top of the vehicle production, Musk surprised many when he said that Tesla Gigafactory Austin is also going to be an “ecological paradise” open to the public.

The CEO mentioned a boardwalk, hiking and biking trail, and more.

With the announcement of Tesla’s battery plans, the automaker is also expected to deploy battery cell manufacturing capacity at the factory.

Furthermore, Tesla has a chip and Autopilot hardware team based in Austin, and recently, we reported that Tesla also plans to build a new video game and user interface team in Austin.

It’s unclear whether Tesla plans to move those operations to the Gigafactory once it’s completed.