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Tesla Gigafactory Sparks Real Estate Surge in Nevada

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“I want land, I want a good deal and I want it near Tesla’s new Gigafactory.”

If you’re in real estate, an investor or just watch the news you know there has been a high demand for land near Tesla’s new Gigafactory located in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Park.

Vacant land surrounding the Gigafactory has been on sale for many years but with minimal interest from buyers. Once the announcement came that Tesla was building the world’s largest battery factory within the vicinity, interest around land and real estate has come pouring in from every outlet.

A significant amount of deals have been completed with little to no knowledge to the public and LLC’s are being created to mask the actual purchaser. If you drive out to the Industrial Park you’ll see signs all over USA Parkway saying “Land for Sale”. Six months ago these signs rarely existed or would be overlooked with no interest. Not anymore!!

Tesla-Gigafactory-Real-Estate

I had a call from a client stating “I have $5 Million and I want an apartment complex near Tesla” … Yes, that sounds great but you know this investor was not from the area or knew very little about the land he wanted to buy. The Tahoe Reno Industrial Park is just that, an Industrial Park, not a place to have residential housing. The companies in the Industrial Park may produce smells and loud noises that are not too conducive to residential or mulit-family housing but there is a plan for a Hotel located right off USA Parkway not too deep into the park. Tesla’s announcement has brought more than just construction jobs, their supply chain and lots of talk. It brought money to the area.

Gigafactory-Apartments-Tahoe-Reno“I have $5 Million and I want an apartment complex near Tesla”

Just a short 15 minute drive west is the cities Reno and Sparks (separated by a freeway). On August 19th, 2014 a 296-unit apartment complex called Eastland Hills was purchased for $27.5M and created a lot of talk in the area. Many attributed this purchase to Tesla and our local news paper the Reno Gazette Journal calling it the “Tesla Touch”.

Reno Sparks Tahoe Homes reported another apartment complex just a half of a mile away from Eastland Hills, a 256-unit luxury garden style complex Villas at D’Andrea was purchased for $32M on December 18th, 2014. You can see how months later the Tesla Gigafactory announcement is still having a large impact on the community.

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When it comes to buying vs building the Reno/Sparks market is finally at a breakeven point. We have low re-sale inventory, approximately 2.6 months when the norm should be around 6 months of inventory. This has been putting pressure on new construction. We have lots of new developments opening in the area and even though we’re 15 minutes away from the Tesla Gigafactory, land is being scooped up all over.

What are you waiting for?

by Candy Noel
Real Estate Professional at RenoSparksTahoeHomes.com

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Tesla teases new market entrance with confusing and cryptic message

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(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla teased its entrance into a new market with a confusing and what appeared to be cryptic message on the social media platform X.

The company has been teasing its entrance into several markets, including Africa, which would be a first, and South America, where it only operates in Chile.

In September, Tesla started creating active job postings for the Colombian market, hinting it would expand its presence in South America and launch in a new country for the first time in two years.

Tesla job postings seem to show next surprise market entry

The jobs were related to various roles, including Associate Sales Manager, Advisors in Sales and Delivery, and Service Technicians. These are all roles that would indicate Tesla is planning to launch a wide-scale effort to sell, manage, and repair vehicles in the market.

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Last night, Tesla posted its latest hint, a cryptic video that seems to show the outline of Colombia, teasing its closer than ever to market entry:

This would be the next expansion into a continent where it does not have much of a presence for Tesla. Currently, there are only two Supercharger locations on the entire continent, and they’re both in Chile.

Tesla will obviously need to expand upon this crucial part of the ownership experience to enable a more confident consumer base in South America as a whole. However, it is not impossible, as many other EV charging infrastructures are available, and home charging is always a suitable option for those who have access to it.

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Surprisingly, Tesla seems to be more concerned about these middle-market countries as opposed to the larger markets in South America, but that could be by design.

If Tesla were to launch in Brazil initially, it may not be able to handle the uptick in demand, and infrastructure expansion could be more difficult. Brazil may be on its list in the upcoming years, but not as of right now.

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Tesla expands crucial Supercharging feature for easier access

It is a useful tool, especially during hours of congestion. However, it has not been super effective for those who drive non-Tesla EVs, as other OEMs use UI platforms like Google’s Android Auto or Apple’s iOS.

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tesla supercharger
Credit: Tesla

Tesla has expanded a crucial Supercharging feature that helps owners identify stall availability at nearby locations.

Tesla said on Tuesday night that its “Live Availability” feature, which shows EV owners how many stalls are available at a Supercharger station, to Google Maps, a third-party app:

Already offering it in its own vehicles, the Live Availability feature that Teslas have is a helpful feature that helps you choose an appropriate station with plugs that are immediately available.

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A number on an icon where the Supercharger is located lets EV drivers know how many stalls are available.

It is a useful tool, especially during hours of congestion. However, it has not been super effective for those who drive non-Tesla EVs, as other OEMs use UI platforms like Google’s Android Auto or Apple’s iOS.

Essentially, when those drivers needed to charge at a Supercharger that enables non-Tesla EVs to plug in, there was a bit more of a gamble. There was no guarantee that a plug would be available, and with no way to see how many are open, it was a risk.

Tesla adding this feature allows people to have a more convenient and easier-to-use experience if they are in a non-Tesla EV. With the already expansive Supercharger Network being available to so many EV owners, there is more congestion than ever.

This new feature makes the entire experience better for all owners, especially as there is more transparency regarding the availability of plugs at Supercharger stalls.

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It will be interesting to see if Tesla is able to expand on this new move, as Apple Maps compatibility is an obvious goal of the company’s in the future, we could imagine. In fact, this is one of the first times an Android Auto feature is available to those owners before it became an option for iOS users.

Apple owners tend to get priority with new features within the Tesla App itself.

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Elon Musk’s Boring Co goes extra hard in Nashville with first rock-crushing TBM

The Boring Company’s machine for the project is now in final testing.

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Credit: The Boring Company/X

The Boring Company is gearing up to tackle one of its toughest projects yet, a new tunnel system beneath Nashville’s notoriously tough limestone terrain. Unlike the soft-soil conditions of Las Vegas and Austin, the Music City Loop will require a “hard-rock” boring machine capable of drilling through dense, erosion-resistant bedrock. 

The Boring Company’s machine for the project is now in final testing.

A boring hard-rock tunneling machine

The Boring Company revealed on X that its new hard-rock TBM can generate up to 4 million pounds of grip force and 1.5 million pounds of maximum thrust load. It also features a 15-filter dust removal system designed to keep operations clean and efficient during excavation even in places where hard rock is present.

Previous Boring Co. projects, including its Loop tunnels in Las Vegas, Austin, and Bastrop, were dug primarily through soft soils. Nashville’s geology, however, poses a different challenge. Boring Company CEO and President Steve Davis mentioned this challenge during the project’s announcement in late July.

“It’s a tough place to tunnel, Nashville. If we were optimizing for the easiest places to tunnel, it would not be here. You have extremely hard rock, like way harder than it should be. It’s an engineering problem that’s fairly easy and straightforward to solve,” Davis said.

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Nashville’s limestone terrain

Experts have stated that the city’s subsurface conditions make it one of the more complex tunneling environments in the U.S. The Outer Nashville Basin is composed of cherty Mississippian-age limestone, a strong yet soluble rock that can dissolve over time, creating underground voids and caves, as noted in a report from The Tennessean.

Jakob Walter, the founder and principal engineer of Haushepherd, shared his thoughts on these challenges. “Limestone is generally a stable sedimentary bedrock material with strength parameters that are favorable for tunneling. Limestone is however fairly soluble when compared to other rack materials, and can dissolve over long periods of time when exposed to water. 

“Unexpected encounters with these features while tunneling can result in significant construction delays and potential instability of the excavation. In urban locations, structures at the ground surface should also be constantly monitored with robotic total stations or similar surveying equipment to identify any early signs of movement or distress,” he said.

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