Electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is now on a hiring spree and has more than 1,600 job openings. The company is currently working on its next car, battery factory and the autopilot feature, which was released a few weeks ago.
The automaker had 1,648 job openings earlier today, most of them available at their factory in Fremont and offices in Palo Alto. Most of the job openings in the area are for engineers and technicians. Most are also full time positions.
The electric car maker is also looking for service technicians and product specialists at their showrooms in the Bay Area and around the United States. The company is not only hiring in the United States, they’re looking for employees to expand in a number of cities, including Sydney and London.
Bloomberg News said recently that Tesla now has more than 14,000 employees. The number is a little small compared to other automakers in the United States, but that number will soon grow as the company has big plans for the next five years.
Model X, Gigafactory and Model 3
Tesla has had a huge success with the Model S sedan and recently rolled out the first Model X SUVs from its factory. Their first ever electric SUVs will start being delivered to customers next year. Tesla recently launched the autopilot feature for the two vehicles mentioned above and has been working on upgrades.
Tesla is also working on the Gigafactory 1, a lithium-ion battery factory which is under construction in Storey County, Nevada. The factory will be operational next year or 2017. The Gigafactory 1 will reduce the production cost for their batteries and powerwall packs by 30 percent. The 
company will employ more than 6,000 people for the factory and will supply half a million cars per year.
The company and its partners plan to complete the factory before 2020. There are also talks about an expansion, after Tesla announced that it had exercised its option to buy close to 2,000 acres of land next to where the factory is being built. Earlier this year, Elon said that they were considering increasing the size of the factory by 50 to 100 percent.
After the Model X was rolled out of the factory, it was reported that the company had started working on the Model 3, a car about 20 percent smaller than the Model S. The price will start at $35,000, half of what the Model S costs. Tesla will reveal the Model 3 next year and will begin production the year after.
Musk said in a number of tweets that the new workers don’t necessarily need automotive experience and that he would interview some of them personally. The number of positions available is a lot, but getting a job at Tesla is not easy. According to Tesla’s Vice President of Human Resources, Arnnon Geshuri, in the last 14 months the company has received 1.5 million applications from around the world.
