Tesla’s ‘Gigafactory’ on a 3000-acre site in the Nevada desert is being opened a year ahead of plan to help meet the demand for the electric car company’s upcoming Model 3.

Tesla says the £3.8bn plant, which is already partially operational, will revolutionise EV battery production and slash battery and component costs for Tesla’s range of vehicles by more than 30%.

Battery cell production is expected to commence in late 2017, which is also the proposed launch window of the Model 3. By the time the factory reaches its planned full capacity in 2020, it will be producing around 460,000 lithium ion batteries a year. That’s more Li-ion batteries than were produced worldwide in 2013.

When completed, Tesla’s factory will be one of the world’s largest buildings in the world. By 2020 it will be employing 6500 people and producing 500,000 cars a year. To date, the manufacturer has never exceeded an annual output of 50,000 cars. For comparison, Nissan’s Sunderland factory is one of the largest in Europe. The process of ramping up to 500,000 cars a year there took 28 years.

The Model 3 mass-market electric saloon is being priced at $35,000 in the US but is likely to be nearer to £35,000 in the UK. 400,000 deposits for the car have already been received by Tesla.