The stars just seemed to be aligned for this. You just think, This is the one. It s like dating.
— Joey Grisham, president of the economic development corporation in Hutto, Texas, which fought hard to bring the Tesla Gigafactory to Austin. But Tesla spurned Texas (and Arizona and New Mexico and California) as the site for the massive battery plant and instead said I do to Nevada. Fortune takes a look at the fairly quick courtship that led to the big plunge, which it says involved Nevada giving a total of $1.4 billion in credits and incentives to Tesla. Along the way, the piece shows the other suitors valiant — maybe even soul-sucking — efforts to land Tesla s Gigafactory, which Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval estimates will eventually generate 22,000 jobs and pump $100 billion into the small state s economy. (Some think that s too optimistic.) The piece also depicts the Silicon Valley electric-car maker as a fickle, hard-driving and demanding partner, one that gave its suitors the silent treatment from time to time during the grueling process. Whatever the Reno contingent had to go through, Sandoval thinks it was worth it. Fortune notes that at the Gigafactory ceremony announcing the deal, Sandoval said Tesla has changed the trajectory of our state forever.
Photo: Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, left, and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval shake hands after a press conference where Nevada was announced as the new site for Tesla s Gigafactory, in Carson City, Nevada, Sept. 4, 2014. (Cathleen Allison/Associated Press)
