Economic developers pitch Elon Musk on Wichita area for Tesla Cybertruck Gigafactory

Economic developers and business recruiters in Kansas are pitching billionaire businessman Elon Musk on locating Tesla’s new Cybertruck Gigafactory in the Wichita area.

The Greater Wichita Partnership tagged Tesla and Musk, the company’s CEO, in a tweet on Monday marketing the Wichita area for the electric pickup factory. Musk had announced in a tweet last month that he was scouting locations for the Cybertruck Gigafactory, which he said will be in the central United States.

“The most geocentric metro in the nation, 800-acre site with access to two Class I railways and the #1 manufacturing-skilled workforce in the nation. A @Tesla Cybertruck Gigafactory location can’t get any better than this, @Elonmusk. http://CybertruckDreamSite.com #TeslaInWichita”

The Tesla Cybertruck is an electric, battery-powered pickup. Production is expected to start in late 2021. Musk has said a new factory must be built because Tesla’s facility in Fremont, California, is at maximum capacity. The new Gigafactory will be the company’s third in the U.S. and fifth worldwide.

When Musk first tweeted that he was looking at the center of the country for the factory, several public officials took to Twitter to support their regions. Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple offered to show him around the city while talking about what the community has to offer. The Kansas Commerce and Labor departments and the city of Wichita touted the location and workforce.

The website for the Wichita area pitch — an apparent collaboration of the Greater Wichita Partnership, Develop El Dorado and Kansas Department of Commerce — markets the greater Wichita region as “a perfect place for Tesla” and “home of the Cybertruck dream site.”

“We heard on Twitter that you’re looking for a centrally located site,” the website states. “With the site of your dreams and the best manufacturing workforce in the nation, we can provide everything Tesla’s Cybertruck Gigafactory needs right here in the heartland of America.”

The location is billed as an 800-acre site with access to BNSF and Union Pacific railways, a nearby BNSF transload facility, access to I-35, an electric substation available on-site and an adjacent 8,400-acre lake offering high-capacity water with low rates. The location is not named, but a photo appears to highlight undeveloped land northeast of the El Dorado Industrial Park adjacent to the Kansas Turnpike.

The website highlights Wichita’s nickname of the Air Capital of the World and the city’s history of aviation manufacturing and research. Incentives are also part of the offerings.

“With a wide array of incentive tools that help defray the upfront investment and our business-friendly environment providing long-term savings, the Greater Wichita region has everything,” the website states.

The listed incentives include discounted land prices, upfront cash from state programs, federal tax benefits, funding for training, and utility infrastructure and rate savings through Evergy and the Kansas Gas Service.

“And that’s not all,” the narrator of a YouTube video says of the region’s offerings. “We have great ice cream, cute dogs and a passion for space. This guy loves us (a photo of actor Harrison Ford as Han Solo appears), and we think you will too.”

This story was originally published April 28, 2020 at 5:00 AM.