Science

Tesla Loved Lithuania's Minecraft-Themed Gigafactory 2 Idea

by Dyani Sabin

Lithuania wants to be chosen to be the site for Tesla’s Gigafactory 2 so badly that it recreated the entire Gigafactory in Minecraft.

Tesla released Lithuania’s inspired pitch on Friday, showing off the incredible work of 40 live streaming builders that completed construction on the complex in 35 hours. Since Elon Musk announced that Gigafactory 2 would be somewhere in Europe, countries have been racing to find ways to attract Musk to their shores. Gigafactory 2 will be a largely autonomous factory, using sophisticated manufacturing machines to build Tesla vehicles as well as the company’s lithium-ion batteries, just like the original Gigafactory. Anywhere in Europe is in the running, but Lithuania is driving for Musk to pick Kruonis, and it certainly looks like the Minecraft-themed pitch caught Tesla’s attention.

Spain and France have also made bids to get Gigafactory 2, but Musk hasn’t really given any indication that he’s been leaning towards any specific location. The tweet from Tesla is pretty encouraging for Lithuania, saying “Lithuania knows the way to our heart: a Gigafactory 2 pitch using Minecraft.”

Musk is expected to decide on a site in Europe for Gigafactory 2 sometime in 2017, after Tesla Model 3’s are in production. The plant is going to be even more automated than the current Tesla manufacturing system, likely featuring systems from Musk’s recent acquisition of Grohmann Engineering. When Musk announced that he would build a Gigafactory in Europe, he said it would produce vehicles and batteries, and could be one of up to three similar European projects.

Lithuania took these tidbits and ran with them. The video pitch shows their 40 livestreamers completing construction on a Gigafactory in Kruonis in only 35 hours. To do so, they replicated the plan for the Gigafactory, and then highlighted the features that make Kruonis a good choice. These include a pumped storage power plant, solar and wind power, that Kruonis is near several major international airports, and that it’s a free economic zone (which makes the taxes lower for Tesla). It ends with a strong tagline, “We can build anything, anywhere. We are Lithuania 2017.”

However, if Musk chooses a location for Gigafactory 2 like he did for the original Gigafactory, which is located on Electric Drive in Sparks, Nevada – Kruonis needs to get a great pun name or nerdy pop culture reference, stat.

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