Tesla has announced that it intends to retool a solar panel factory in western New York state to manufacture medical ventilators due to the coronavirus pandemic, Kallanish Energy reports.
That plan for the Tesla Giga New York factory in Buffalo, New York, was announced last week in tweet by CEO Elon Musk.
Tesla will make the ventilators in cooperation with Medtronic, an Irish-based company.
The plant that had been closed earlier due to pandemic precautions “will reopen for ventilator production as soon as humanly possible,” Musk said in his tweet.
The Buffalo facility leased by Tesla subsidiary SolarCity manufactures photovoltaic cells including solar roof tiles. It began operations in August 2017.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says his state will need 30,000 additional ventilators to help people breathe due to the virus that attacks the human lungs.
New York and other states, along with the federal government, have been scrambling to acquire or build ventilators.
A number of other U.S. firms including Ford and General Motors with partners have agreed to help manufacture ventilators during the pandemic.
