“On the vehicle side, I am pretty steadfast in my skepticism at $200 or above. I’m a bear,” Albertine said. “My bull case is in the case that the cars become ancillary.”
‘Robust Competition’
Tesla, he said, would essentially become a power storage company. That would benefit SolarCity Corp., which is partly owned by Musk and may be a partner in the factory.
Musk said last week that Panasonic Corp. -- now the biggest supplier of lithium-ion cells used in Tesla’s batteries -- may also be involved. Panasonic’s participation is “not 100 percent confirmed,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview.
While Tesla identified only four states as potential hosts, “it’s going to draw interest from many others,” Cuneo said. He predicted a “robust competition” where “incentives are probably going to be a big factor.”
A slide-show on the Tesla website includes a rendering of the facility in a desert landscape, with adjacent solar and wind farms to supply electricity. Construction could begin as early as this year, according to the presentation.".....