November 25, 2021: -Tesla will spend over $1 billion on a new vehicle factory in Austin, Texas, and aims to complete construction of several significant elements of the complex by December 31, according to construction filings with the Texas Department of Regulation seen by CNBC.Tesla plans to spend almost $1.06 billion on what the company calls a “Gigafactory” that will produce the company’s forthcoming electric pickup truck, Cybertruck, and Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

The permits show that Tesla’s announced expansion next to the Colorado River remains on track to start producing vehicles shortly. The company is investing a substantial amount of capital in the 2,000-acre facility.

The factory is an important symbol for the company after it announced plans to move its headquarters from California to Texas. The Travis County, Texas, facility was first announced in 2020.

“Gigafactory Texas is progressing as planned,” Tesla said in a shareholder slide deck in October. “We are in the process of commissioning equipment and fabricating our first pre-production vehicles.”

The Texas filings, dated November 19, show that Tesla started construction in Sept. and Nov. 2020 on facilities intended for bodywork, stamping, casting, painting, and complete vehicle assembly at the plant, which will have more than 4.2 million square feet of space.

Tesla is now operating factories in California, Nevada, and Shanghai and constructing a plant near Berlin.

Tesla said it planned to spend $1.1 billion on the Texas plant in meetings with local officials and received tax breaks worth a minimum of $14.7 million.

In October, Austin Mayor Steve Adler said that Tesla “fits right in” to the city and region. Tesla plans to employ “thousands” of employees at the plant.

“We’re going to make it a factory that is going to be stunning; it’s right on the Colorado River. So we’re going to have to have a boardwalk over you, hiking, biking trail. It’s going to be an ecological paradise,” Musk said in 2020.