Tesla Inc. unveiled plans Tuesday for a giant $3.6 billion expansion of its factory in Nevada that would nearly triple the company’s U.S. production of battery cells and produce large numbers of electric semitrucks.
The growth plan swings the EV manufacturing spotlight back to Tesla after more than a year when other automakers, from Ford Motor Co. to Hyundai Motor Co. to Rivian Automotive Inc., announced their own EV factories and seemed to embody momentum in the electric vehicle market.
It also draws renewed attention to Tesla’s storied Nevada site.
Tesla created shock waves when it declared in 2014 that it would build the world’s first “Gigafactory” to produce prodigious numbers of EV batteries in the arid lands outside Reno. The site has since cranked out batteries as promised but has been eclipsed in the public mind by fresher Tesla…