Tesla wants to build its first truck factory.

The Elon Musk-led company, best known for its electric cars, has now announced an expansion of its existing manufacturing facility in Reno, Nevada.

In this “Gigafactory”, Tesla has primarily built battery cells, as well as the “Semi” truck, in small numbers to date, of which the first units were delivered to the American beverage and food company Pepsico in December.

Roland Lindner

Business correspondent in New York.

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Two more factories are now to be built on the site, and one of them will be used to manufacture trucks "in high volume", although Tesla did not specify this further.

The second new factory is intended for the production of further battery cells.

Their capacity should be enough to produce batteries for 1.5 million vehicles every year.

With the announcement, Tesla underscores its ambitions in the truck business.

The company first unveiled the semi-truck to the public in 2017 and originally promised a 2019 launch.

As with many other Tesla models before, there were considerable delays.

Investments are also being made elsewhere

Tesla put the investment volume for the new factories at $3.6 billion, with a total of 3,000 new jobs to be created.

The Gigafactory in Nevada was opened in 2016, and so far the company says it has invested $6.2 billion here.

Tesla also wants to expand elsewhere in its American home market.

It recently became known that Tesla has submitted plans to the responsible authorities for the expansion of its plant in Austin, Texas, which opened just last year.

Further investments of more than 700 million dollars are planned here.

Austin produces the Model Y, a compact SUV, and is also set to make the futuristic-looking Cybertruck pickup truck, which Tesla has announced will launch later this year.

Almost simultaneously with the plant in Texas, Tesla opened its plant in Grünheide, Brandenburg, last year, where the Model Y is also manufactured.

The company also has factories in Fremont, California, where the original headquarters are located, and in Shanghai.