Is a Tesla factory coming to Missouri? Maybe, if this city gets its way

Last month, Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter that he was scouting locations in the central U.S. for the company’s Cybertruck gigafactory.

Now, one southwest Missouri city is throwing its hat in the ring — along with a major incentive plan.

Officials in Joplin say they’ve submitted a formal bid to Tesla that, if successful, would land the factory on development land west of the city, the Joplin Globe reported.

The site would be one mile by two miles in size, according to the outlet.

Musk has described the gigafactory — a term he coined — as a “machine that builds the machine,” which would ideally have the capacity to build anything Tesla sells including batteries and storage panels along with electric cars, The Verge reported.

Tesla broke ground on its first gigafactory outside Reno, Nevada, in 2014. The massive factory began manufacturing batteries in 2018, becoming highest volume battery producer in the world, according to the company.

Joplin officials say the plan, outlined on the website ChooseJoplin.com, is worth $1 billion in incentives and savings and includes:

• a 1,042 acre site at a 50% discount
• 100% tax abatement for 12 years
• Missouri Works incentives
• Missouri Automotive Incentive tax credits
• State and local sales tax exemptions
• Missouri BUILD incentives
• 75 million in annual payroll savings compared to manufacturing and engineer wages in larger cities such as Nashville and Austin

The website also seeks to highlight Joplin’s ease of access, pointing out the city’s regional airport, access to BNSF railways and its proximity to the I-44 and I-49 corridor.

To operate, the plant would require up to 7,000 workers, according to the Globe.

“It would be using a lot of our workers, but I believe it would be a very big attraction for people to come from the rest of the state or from other areas of the country,” Mayor Gary Shaw told the newspaper.

Chamber of Commerce President Toby Teeter, who spearheaded the plan, said he hopes the site will attract young professionals to the area, whether to work for Tesla or other area businesses.

“Our target demographic are Millennials and Generation Z. These are young professionals in their twenties and thirties, who now make up the majority of our workforce,” he told KOAM. “By strengthening the Joplin brand and using data-driven marketing, we are engaging, attracting, and retaining this crucial age group.”

The futuristic Cybertruck made waves last year when Musk unveiled the prototype for the company’s sixth vehicle, an all-electric pickup truck, which would be available in three versions: some with a 250 mile range, 300 mile range and 500 mile range.

It was touted as having shatter-proof windows, but during a demonstration, Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen threw a heavy metal ball at two of the truck’s windows, shattering them.

This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 10:15 AM.