To follow up on his promise to provide ventilators in the fight against Coronavirus in the US, Tesla CEO Elon has confirmed that the electric vehicle firm is trying to open its factory in Buffalo, New York ¡°as soon as humanly possible.¡±
The confirmation comes in the form of a tweet by the tech billionaire. Since the COVID-19 caused by Coronavirus is a disease targeting the respiratory system of a human being, ventilators are a crucial part of taking care of those infected by the virus.
Citing this need, Musk had earlier announced that both of his firms - Tesla and SpaceX, would be working towards making ventilators or would donate to help the US government agencies to procure them.
As per a report by the New York Times, there are about 160,000 ventilators in the United States. Additionally, there are 12,700 ventilators in the National Strategic Supply.
With the number of COVID-19 cases in the country rapidly rising, the number of ventilators is already falling short to meet the requirements. Private players like Tesla have decided to pitch in to help eliminate this disparity in the demand and supply. Such firms are either directly helping the original manufacturers of ventilators in increasing their production capacity, or are making ventilators on their own.??
Now Musk wants to open the Tesla gigafactory in Buffalo, New York to follow on these plans. The tech entrepreneur, who was once skeptical about the virus outbreak, calling the resulting panic ¡°dumb¡±, has now decided otherwise and hence joined the fight to eradicate it.
It is, however, not clear as to when the factory will be opened, if anytime soon. As and when it does, the Tesla team is expected to take some time to restructure the manufacturing plant to suit the production of ventilators and then make them for the world to benefit. Considering they have some of the best engineers working with them, it should not be too long.