Tesla has revealed the location of its third Megafactory, following Mega Lathrop and Mega Shanghai. The new facility will be in Brookshire, Texas, covering 1.6 million square feet—twice the combined size of Mega Lathrop and Mega Shanghai.
Tesla has had a lease deal at the Empire West industrial park since at least late 2021, where a third-party company has been managing the shipment of vehicle parts from Giga Texas and Fremont factories service centers across North America.
Mega… Factory?
The name says it all. Tesla’s Gigafactories focus on vehicle production—like Giga Texas, Giga Berlin, and Giga Shanghai—while Megafactories are dedicated to Tesla’s energy products.
Tesla Energy is expanding rapidly, with executives suggesting it could soon become one of the company’s largest revenue streams as demand continues to outpace supply.
Mega Brookshire will manufacture Megapacks and Powerwalls, Tesla’s primary stationary energy products. Both use LFP batteries, meaning their production won’t impact Tesla’s vehicle output, as most of the company’s cars rely on NMC batteries.
Looking at the Numbers
Tesla plans to invest approximately $194 million in upgrades and equipment across the two buildings, with the facility projected to generate between $8 billion and $10 billion in annual revenue.
Of that investment, $44 million will go toward facility improvements, such as parking, electrical upgrades, accessibility, and structural updates. The remaining $150 million will be allocated to Tesla-sourced manufacturing equipment for product production.
Tesla will also be employing approximately 1,500 people in the local community, which will be a considerable economic boost for the local residents.
Mega Brookshire Phase 2
The Megafactory plans also include funding for a distribution facility, with Tesla set to invest $31 million in its purchase and an additional $2 million for equipment and facility upgrades. Given its proximity to Giga Texas, it’s likely that Mega Brookshire’s distribution terminal will support the Tesla Semi.
This marks Tesla’s first factory announcement since Mega Shanghai. While there were initial plans for Giga Mexico, where Tesla initially planned to build their next-gen vehicle, those plans have seemingly been shelved as Giga Texas and Fremont continue to expand.
Although an official timeline for Mega Brookshire’s launch hasn’t been shared, Mega Shanghai is set to begin production soon after breaking ground in May 2024. Based on that timeline, Mega Brookshire could be operational by mid-to-late 2026.
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Apple previously committed to offering real-time availability of EV chargers in Apple Maps, initially supporting certain chargers like ChargePoint. Users can now view how many chargers are actively being used, and this functionality is expected to expand to Tesla Superchargers in the future.
Apple is now expanding support for NACS chargers. Aaron from X spotted this update in the latest iOS 18.4 Beta.
NACS Plugs
While Apple Maps already displays Tesla Superchargers and detailed information, such as the power of each site and the number of stalls available, it doesn’t provide real-time stall availability yet.
While Tesla has the largest number of NACS charging stations, some other brands also use NACS connectors, and this is expected to increase now that NACS is the official charging connector in North America.
While Apple is planning to add real-time availability for Superchargers in the future, it will now warn users if they’re navigating to a NACS station if their vehicle doesn’t have the correct port. Apple Maps already shows which connectors a station offers, and they received added support for Apple Maps on the web.
A code snippet in iOS 18.4 reveals that Apple Maps will display a banner and sound a voice alert while using Apple Maps on a phone or in Car Play.
The banner and alert will mention that “You need to use a charging adapter on this route,” or more specifically, “Tesla NACS Adapter Required.”
Hopefully, Apple will also be able to pull data from Tesla’s API, noting which sites have Magic Docks - and therefore won’t need an adapter.
Not a Tesla App
Live Supercharger Availability
A key factor in making this experience seamless is adding support for live charger availability. While Apple currently provides real-time charging information for some non-Tesla stations, it has yet to include the most widespread and reliable network—Tesla’s Supercharger network.
When Apple integrates Tesla’s API and adds real-time Supercharger availability, Apple Maps could be a good alternative to finding a nearby charging station as it’ll also provide real-time third-party charger availability.
These changes would bring Apple’s navigation experience closer to Tesla’s built-in trip planner, which dynamically adjusts routes based on station occupancy and estimated arrival state of charge.
Vehicle vandalism—especially the misguided vandalism of privately owned Teslas has been on the rise. While some owners are fortunate enough to catch perpetrators with Sentry Mode or security cameras, many vandals escape without consequence, often without even triggering the vehicle’s alarm.
Recently, Tesla vandalism has escalated, including the arson of a Tesla showroom in France and the destruction of a Supercharger site in the U.S. Beyond attacks on the company itself, Tesla owners are also being targeted, regardless of any connection to the controversies surrounding the brand.
Although Sentry Mode is effective for capturing incidents after the fact, it does little to prevent them in the moment. While useful for insurance claims and law enforcement, it doesn’t actively deter criminal activity. A simple honk or alarm trigger could go a long way in discouraging bad actors before they cause damage.
Littleton Fire Department
Honking at Vandalism
Now, that may all come to an end. In response to a post requesting Tesla’s engineers to find a way to protect vehicles from getting keyed, Elon Musk responded that your Tesla could potentially honk at people when it detects activity like your vehicle being keyed or spray-painted.
Musk suggested the idea in response to a video on X showing a Tesla being keyed. While this type of vandalism isn’t new, incidents have been increasing. Given Tesla’s ability to detect lane markings and surrounding objects, it could just as easily recognize destructive behavior like keying. A simple honk can go a long way in deterring this kind of behavior.
It’s a small change but increasingly necessary in a world where tensions are rising and Tesla owners are being targeted. This addition would shift Sentry Mode from a mostly reactive feature to a proactive one, helping to reduce vehicle damage.
Sentry Mode has continued to improve throughout the years. In the Christmas update, Tesla added the ability to view Sentry Mode videos directly on your phone. Although this is limited to iPhones right now, we expect this to open up to Android devices in the future. We’re also expecting Sentry Mode efficiency changes in an upcoming update.
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