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Elon Musk says next Tesla Gigafactory will be near Austin, Texas

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said during the company’s earnings call Wednesday that the electric car-maker’s next Gigafactory would be located near Austin, Texas, settling the debate after officials in both Texas and Oklahoma set out on a charm offensive to lure the automaker to their states.

“The location is five minutes from Austin International National Airport and 15 minutes from Downtown Austin. It’s about 2,000 acres,” Musk said during the call. “And we're going to make, make it, I think, a factory that it's going to be stunning. It's right on the Colorado River. So we're actually going to have, we're going to have a boardwalk where there'll be a hiking, biking trail. It's going to basically be an ecological paradise – birds in the trees, butterflies, fish in the stream. And it will be open to the public as well.”

Initial work on the facility began this past weekend, Musk said. The location will be the company’s fourth vehicle-assembly factory worldwide and second in the US, with its Fremont, California factory, Shanghai Gigafactory and forthcoming Berlin factory comprising the other three.

The Tesla Cybertruck, Tesla Semi and Model 3 and Y for the eastern half of North America will be manufactured at the Texas Gigafactory, Musk said. Both the Tesla Cybertruck and Semi are still being developed.

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“At the same time, I want to say, we will continue to grow in California,” Musk added. California will manufacture the Model S and X for worldwide consumption, and Model 3 and Y for the western half of North America, Musk added. The Tesla Roadster “would also make sense in California,” Musk said.

The official announcement of Texas as the location for Tesla’s next Gigafactory ended weeks of speculation, as local officials in both Texas and in Oklahoma sought to bring the automaker to their regions. Earlier in July, Musk visited Tulsa, Oklahoma to meet with officials and consider it as a location for the next US factory.

“I want to do a shout-out to Tulsa,” Musk said during Wednesday’s call. “Really, I was super impressed ... and we will for sure consider Tulsa for future expansion of Tesla down the road.”

While details of Tulsa’s incentive package for Tesla were not made public, officials in Travis County, Texas recently voted in favor of offering Tesla millions of dollars in potential tax breaks, if the electric car-maker chose to place the new facility nearby.

Travis County commissioners this month voted to offer Tesla a tax break worth at least $14.7 million over 10 years so long as the company invests at least $1.1 billion into the factory. The package came on top of a property tax abatement in Texas approved earlier in the month worth an estimated $46 million.

Tesla has previously told Texas officials that the Gigafactory will eventually employ at least 5,000 people.

A Tesla Model X car is pictured at a Tesla electric car dealership in Sydney, Australia, May 31, 2017.  REUTERS/Jason Reed
A Tesla Model X car is pictured at a Tesla electric car dealership in Sydney, Australia, May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Reed

Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @emily_mcck

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