Tesla Motors Inc said construction of a massive battery factory in Nevada remains on schedule, following a report in a local newspaper that the effort has been delayed.
“The project is progressing and the gigafactory is still on schedule,” Tesla spokeswoman Alexis Georgeson said on Friday in an e-mailed statement.
The electric-car company last month said that equipment would be installed this year and that battery pack production would begin next year.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union had posted on a jobs board that the construction project had been cut back 80 percent, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.
The need for electricians is subject to change, the union said on its Web site.
The plant, which may cost as much as US$5 billion, is designed to more than double the world’s supply of lithium-ion batteries, driving down costs and making electric vehicles more affordable. Battery packs made there are to be used initially in Tesla’s Model S sedan and its coming Model X sport utility vehicle, and later for the less costly Model 3 and for stationary storage applications.
Tesla is hiring dozens of employees for the electricity storage business, which it projects “will be a multibillion dollar per year one in the near term,” according to a job description.
The factory is projected to employ 6,500 people — Nevada residents and veterans are to get priority in hiring — and pay an average of US$25 per hour.
The 46.45-hectare project is expected to employ 3,000 workers at peak construction and is being built in phases.
Separately, the independent Chinese Economic Observer newspaper reported online that Tesla cut about 180 jobs or 30 percent of its staff in China, citing a company executive it did not identify.
Tesla shares fell 3.4 percent to US$193.88 at Friday’s close in New York trading. Tesla has declined 13 percent so far this year, after gaining 48 percent last year.
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