The gamble on Tesla’s gigafactory in the Nevada desert

For months, Randy Walden peddled a 30-week course in manufacturing at Truckee Meadows Community College, in its warehouse campus by Reno-Tahoe International Airport.

He called job prep agencies looking for students and plugged the class on the school’s Web site. Two people signed up. It took him four weeks to drum up four more.

"I was getting ready to cancel it," he said.

Then in September, electric carmaker Tesla announced that it would build the world’s largest battery factory, or "gigafactory," outside Reno, Nev., where it and its partner Panasonic — which will manufacture the lithium battery cells that Tesla will bundle into battery packs to run its cars — would hire 6,500 employees.

The phone calls poured in to Truckee Meadows. That first class grew to 14 people. The second has 45, with a nearly 400-person wait list.

By Jonathan O’Connell

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