Dive Brief:
- Tesla plans to open a parts distribution center in Greenville, South Carolina, thanks to a 251,100-square-foot facility in the Fox Hill Business Park.
- The center will be solely focused on the distribution of vehicle parts regionally and will not include manufacturing, according to a Jan. 18 press release from the Greenville Area Development Corp.
- The center is expected to open in early 2024, and will facilitate the electric vehicle manufacturer with access to Interstate 385, nearby air and intermodal services and over 90 million people within a day’s drive.
Dive Insight:
Tesla is responding to growing demand for EVs, producing the highest amount of vehicles it’s ever done in a quarter by manufacturing nearly 495,000 units in Q4.
The Fox Hill facility is also ripe for expansion, where the business park can accommodate up to 2.5 million square feet of manufacturing, distribution and warehousing, the development corp noted.
The area also has additional draws. City of Fountain Inn, located in the southernmost end of Greenville County, Mayor GP McLeer said Tesla’s new facility will help connect the region’s existing suppliers with the automaker.
Besides growing demand, the center’s location in Greenville provides close proximity to the Inland Port Greer and the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, and it's a short drive to the Port of Charleston and Inland Port Dillon.
The electric car maker has been growing its warehouse footprint in the past year. In August 2023, Tesla initiated a lease of a 927,000-square-foot distribution facility for automotive parts in Newburgh, New York. In January, Tesla also announced plans to invest $3.6 billion in two Nevada manufacturing sites — one to produce battery cells and one for its high-volume semi truck.
Correction: This story was updated with the precise square footage for Tesla’s new facility.
