By Ryan Randazzo, The Republic | azcentral.com
Much like apartments that advertise free utilities, development officials are holding out discounted electricity in hopes of landing the highly touted Tesla Motors Inc. battery factory that has five states competing for it.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tesla said in February it is shopping in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas for a site to build a factory the size of about 100 Walmart stores that would employ 6,500 people.
The announcement touched off a high-stakes bidding war among Southwest states for what could be one of the largest manufacturing projects in the nation in recent memory. Tesla later said it would take a second look at its home state of California as well. The states all have tax benefits and other incentives, including cash grants, to land major economic developments such as the battery plant. But the price of the electricity Tesla will need to power its monstrous new facility promises to be a key factor in the company’s site selection.
