After months and months of business deliberations that exhibited some of the most crass politico-economic wrangling in recent memory, Tesla Motors has ‘apparently’ decided to base its Gigafactory development project in Reno, Nevada, according to rumblings on Wall Street, along with contacts in the motoring press.
The potential final decision flies in the face of the two main antagonists, Texas Governor Rick Perry and his aggressive ‘y’all come on down’ selling style, versus Jerry Brown’s more professional escort approach where everything under California’s knickers was on the table. On top of Texas’s and California’s bids, Arizona and New Mexico were also in the running, although the two latter States ran more sanguine sales campaigns.
Nevertheless, according to the pundits the “All For Our Country” State will finally get the nod at 4 PM Pacific Time Thursday, which is sort of odd since Nevada is the political home of Harry Reid, a man who would first shake the change out of the pockets of any private enterprise CEO, then steal his/her pants on the way out of the building. Regardless, given Nevada’s current economy malaise, most folks are newly atwitter with promise as illustrated by the following comments from interested parties.
Nevada State Senator James Settelmeyer (R), who’s District includes the Reno-Tahoe area that Tesla will allegedly base its new plant said, “I’m for anything that would bring good-paying jobs to my district.” While Tesla’s Simon Sproule said just several days ago, “We continue to work with the state of Nevada, and look forward to joining the governor and the legislature,” which in this case must be political code for ‘we’re selling the farm, all of the implements and the livestock Pa, just so we can all join the circus and sell popcorn.’
However, like any other competition, somebody has to lose in the end, and the whining already started in Cali yesterday, “I’m devastated for the 6,500 families who won’t have the chance at these jobs unless they move to Nevada,” said State Rep Ted Gaines on Wednesday.
“Tesla is a California-born company that the state has invested heavily in and we want it to succeed,” he concluded. “It makes complete sense for it to expand right here, close to its headquarters, yet they are headed out of state,” and to Mr. Gaines this writer says, “Boo Hoo.”
However, while all the winning and whining are going to suck most of the air out of the electrification segment for the next several news cycles, as usual, Tesla knows the difference between a ‘good deal’ and a ‘really, really good deal’ since previous comments from auto analysts suggest that there may be more than just one Gigafactory on the horizon.
“It may be that Nevada isn’t the sole winner, but is the earliest responder to Musk’s needs for this project”, said Kelly Blue Book’s Karl Brauer, “…and wants to corner the battery market, or at least have a huge level of investment or influence in it, so that he can essentially set his own costs and prices.”
So, hang on folks; just because the Big Top is about to be erected, it doesn’t mean that all of the Tigers and Elephants have arrived yet.
