Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors Inc., is set to name two sites for the company's Giga factory.
The company's next-generation battery packs will be constructed in the factory, according to Greentech Media.
"What we're going to do is move forward with more than one state, at least two, all the way to breaking ground, just in case there are last-minute issues," Musk said.
Musk added that the decision is being made to "minimize the timing risk."
Tesla is looking to add a new electric car in about three years, and said in February that it would build the world's biggest battery plant, with Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada as candidates for the two sites, Bloomberg reported. California, where Tesla's flagship offices are based, is not a candidate for host state due to timing requirements for regulatory reviews.
The new factory needs as much as $5 billion to be constructed, which will employ over 6,000 workers. Musk is looking to use the facility to make Tesla the top producer of electric cars in the world. The plant would supply batteries that are 30 percent cheaper than current batteries, and will also supple battery packs to SolarCity, which will allow buildings and homes with solar panels store their generated energy.
The Giga factory will take up 500 to 1,000 acres of land and will be built near highways and rails, Greentech Media reported. The facility will have space for wind turbines and solar panels. Tesla is looking to start construction for the factory this year and start production in 2017.
Musk predicted that the factory will produce batteries for 500,000 vehicles each year by 2020, and that the decrease in price will set the kilowatt-hour battery pack at almost $10,000.
Musk said in an interview that Tesla's third-generation car has to be designed and prepared for production at the same time as the construction and production of the Giga factory, Bloomberg reported.
"There are a lot of moving parts, a crazy amount of moving parts," he said. "If there's a laggard there, we'll have this massive facility and a tone of people trained and no ability to recoup revenue. It will be quite a bad situation."
