Work on the Tesla Motors battery factory east of Reno is going smoothly.
So smoothly, in fact, the factory should be operational by next summer.
Is it an overly optimistic prediction? Not to Steve Hill, the governor’s point man on economic development in Nevada.
Steve Hill, director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, says some 750 construction workers have been hired since Tesla Motors started building in December. He estimated Tesla had spent north of $200 million on the project.
Nevada won a bidding war with five other states in attracting Tesla to Nevada last year by extending $1.3 billion in tax incentives to the electric car and battery manufacturer.
Hill told KNPR’s State of Nevada the company has earned about $10 million in tax incentives so far, mostly in sales tax abatement having to do with the building of the $5 billion factory.
Steve Hill, director, Governor’s Office of Economic Development,