The demand for electric cars and electric mobility is growing and with that growth, businesses need more space to meet the demand.
While many companies are beginning to expand their infrastructure and capability to cope with their customer’s demands to go electric, one company thought ahead and went and built a massive factory anyway.
In the middle of the 2010s, Elon Musk’s Tesla opened its first Gigafactory in Nevada, Texas, USA. Named ‘Gigafactory 1’, it was the first of many such facilities to spring up around the world, all primed to produce Tesla after Tesla after Tesla.
Today, that very first Gigafactory remains one of the biggest factories in the world, in fact, it is so big that it is allegedly larger than a country.
The country in question is the Vatican City which sits at the heart of Rome, Italy. While the country in question is quite small, it nevertheless puts in perspective just how gigantic Tesla’s factory is.
According to Avanta, it covers 5.3million square feet or the equivalent of 492,000 square metres, while the Vatican city is around 2,000sqm smaller. They explained that despite its size, that Tesla reportedly plans to expand the facility.
They said: “Electric car company Tesla has seen significant growth in recent years and started work on its Gigafactory plant in Nevada in 2014.
“The facility handles the production of batteries and motors for the company’s cars as well as its other energy storage solutions.”
Avanta added: “The multi-floor building currently provides Tesla with around 5.3 million square feet of floor space over a footprint of 1.9 million square feet.
“If that’s not impressive enough, Tesla has plans to expand Gigafactory 1 into the world’s largest building with over 10 million square feet of space, fully powered by renewable energy.”
Tesla’s Gigafactory isn’t the only manufacturing behemoth on the list. Coming in second is Boeing’s Everett factory. Also located in the USA, it is situated in Washington and covers 4.3million square feet.
Although the building misses out on square footage against Tesla, it trumps its automotive rival for sheer internal volume. With 472million cubic feet it is the largest building in the world and could fit 13 Wembley Stadiums.
Closing out the top three is another American company with another factory based in the USA. This time the bronze medallist is Amazon and their MQY1 Fulfilment Centre in Tennessee.
The facility has 3.6million square feet and forms part of a worldwide capacity of 166million square feet for the retailer.
Last year, Express.co.uk was invited to look around one of Amazon’s newest UK facilities just by the Dartford Crossing.
One feature of an expanding network is the fulfilment centre is situated by the side of the Thames and employs thousands of workers who ensure millions of orders get to the people who desire them.
