Tesla welcomed throngs of electric car lovers to Texas Thursday for a huge party dubbed a "cyber rodeo" to inaugurate a manufacturing plant the size of 100 soccer fields.
Online buzz has swelled ever since Tesla’s colorful but controversial founder and chief executive Elon Musk tweeted word of the event, with reports of perhaps as many as 15,000 guests taking part in the official plant opening in the state capital Austin.
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Photos and videos began flooding Twitter after the doors of the cavernous factory opened to guests late in the afternoon with the plant decked out in a distinctive nightclub look.
Visitors mingled under red and blue lights while production machinery and Tesla models were displayed like museum artwork. Outside, cars were parked in the pattern of the Texas flag.
"I think Tesla is going to bring another level of sizzle and high tech into our community," Austin resident Karin Richmond told AFP at the event.
Bulldozers were still at work near the so-called "gigafactory," which signs indicated was constructed with more steel than New York City’s famed Empire State Building.
