Looks like Tesla is investing in a domestic battery cell factory. Its projected output in 2020 will be approximately equal to the amount of cells output across the entire industry last year. They estimate a 30% decrease in cost/kWhr, which is pretty cool. Oh and they're building a ton of solar panels and turbines to help power it. Pretty cool if you ask me.

It makes sense to me - if Tesla continues to grow, why pay the middleman for one of the most essential items in their cars?

To add to your last point, I think they absolutely need the batteries packs to be 30% cheaper for their planned mass-market car to be affordable.

We'll all know if it's more than pure marketing if they raise the bonds and secure the corporate alliances necessary to build this. Convincing Panasonic is no small feat, IMHO.

I'm not talking about the Gigafactory itself being marketing. They've been talking about it for the past two quarterly conference calls. It looks like something that is going to go ahead, somehow, at some point.

What is full-blown marketing is Tesla releasing a 6 page pdf that has no build site, no financial details, very little information of any kind, a bare-bones artist's rendering of a hypothetical location, and what look like unrealistic projections regarding build capacity.

Much like the Hyperloop paper, there's very little substance. But it makes the rounds of the internet, conveniently coinciding with a share dilution.

Musk is clever in more ways than one.

The projections of build capacity look to be roughly what's needed in order for Tesla to actually achieve the growth investors are hoping for. If they're not realistic, then I reckon Tesla's growth is going to be severely and abruptly curtailed in the future.