Tesla Model 3 Update: Elon Musk To Double Size Of Factory In Fremont, California

Tesla Motors Inc. is going to need “a bigger boat.” The electric car company is looking to build out its Fremont, California assembly plant real estate by adding around 4.6 million square feet to accommodate its growing production.

In acting on its ambitious plan to produce one million cars a year, Tesla is looking to more than double the size of the motor factory, the L.A. Times reported Monday. The factory, which currently produces the Model X car, the Model S sedan and the forthcoming Model 3 sedan, currently stands at 4.5 million square feet.

The Model 3 sedan is Tesla’s new affordable, highly anticipated premium sedan that will sell with a starting price of $35,000 – and it will be produced at high volume.

To meet chief executive Elon Musk’s hefty goal of ramping up production to produce 500,000 cars a year by 2018 and one million cars by the end of 2020, doubling factory size to start is a necessary hit on the checklist to make that goal.

“I think it is actually feasible, maybe not advisable, but feasible to do it with just the Fremont and the Gigafactory [the Nevada-based battery factory site for Tesla],” Musk told analysts this past May, according to the L.A. Times.

“We actually believe that Fremont and the Gigafactory could scale to a million vehicles,” Musk stated. “Whether that’s actually wise is a separate question. It’s going to make sense to do localized production at least on a continent basis,” Musk continued. “Otherwise your logistics costs end up being quite extreme.”

For this year, Tesla has planned to release 80,000 to 90,000 vehicles. Last year, the electric car company released 50,580 models from Fremont.

With the anticipation over the Model 3 release, hitting a goal of one million deliveries just might be in Tesla’s future. Production is set for 2017 with hundreds of thousands of pre-orders for the Model 3 alone, worth upwards of $10 billion, according to Digital Trends.

In addition, Musk took to Twitter Sunday to announce a Tesla product unveiling for next Monday — with the Tesla/Solar City announcement expected Oct. 28 — which could very well suggest that another vehicle model launch is in the company’s near future.