Where Should Tesla Put Its Battery Gigafactory? Reader PollWhere Should Tesla Put Its Battery Gigafactory? Reader Poll

When electric-car maker Tesla Motors released more information about its planned “gigafactory” to produce lithium-ion battery cells in the U.S., it revealed the four states it’s considering as plant locations.
They are Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas, all of which are shown as candidate locations in the presentation Tesla put online yesterday.
MORE: Tesla’s Lithium-Ion Battery Gigafactory: What You Need To Know
Clearly the company has been scouting locations for many months.
Slide showing Tesla Motors gigafactory statistics, from Feb 2014 presentation
Last week, the Reno Gazette Journal reports that the company had been looking at the northern part of Nevada.
The state’s northern regions already house huge facilities for Wal-Mart (in the Reno-Tahoe Industrial Center, which will soon see a solar-powered cloud server facility for Apple as well) and Amazon (further east in Fernley).
Reader and Reno resident Bob Tregilus noted that the area has both rail and highway connections to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Tesla is headquartered just a five-hour drive away.
MORE: Why A Gigafactory? Because Tesla Used One-Third Of All Electric-Car Batteries Last Year
Alternatively, the state of New Mexico may still have the advantages Tesla saw back in 2008, when then-governor Bill Richardson publicly announced the startup carmaker had chosen the Cactus State as the future home for its Model S manufacturing.
2012 Tesla Model S beta vehicle, Fremont, CA, October 2011
Tesla’s abrupt May 2010 purchase of the GM-Toyota NUMMI plant in Fremont, California–just down San Francisco Bay from its Palo Alto headquarters–put the kibosh on that deal, and very shortly thereafter the electric-car maker was sued by a real-estate firm over the switch.
Rio Real Estate Investment Opportunities claimed in the suit that it paid to create environmental reports, obtain relevant government permits, and draw up engineering designs for the site following a 2007 contract signed with Tesla.
Perhaps the characteristics that made New Mexico the best choice for a large Tesla manufacturing facility six years ago still apply today?
But we’re curious to have readers weigh in: What are the pros and cons of the four states in your view?
If you were Tesla CEO Elon Musk, which one would you choose–and why?
Leave us your thoughts in the Comments below.
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