Standing beside one another and holding either ends of a huge pair of ceremonial scissors, father and son Paolo and Galiano Tiramani last month officially cut the ribbon for the grand opening of their second factory in Las Vegas. Their company called Boxabl will expand its production capacity of affordable homes at the facility by at least 50% this year, using highly advanced manufacturing techniques.
Boxabl has been awarded over 60 patents for its unique manufacturing processes. Its houses are constructed using a grid system to make foldable modules that can be stacked and cantilevered, enabling a variety of plans and architectural styles, with a base home price of around $60,000. That's in an environment where the current average price to build a house in the U.S. is about $300,000, not including the cost of land.
According to a Pew Research Center survey in 2021, about half of U.S. adults said the availability of affordable housing is a major problem. Since then, the tight housing market has only worsened, and a study by the World Bank found that 1.6 billion people on the planet are expected to be affected by the global housing crisis by 2025 if current trends persist.
The Tesla of Homebuilding
Boxabl expects the new 120,000-square-foot production facility to add 100 jobs, bringing its total workforce up to 300. "Back when we started, I didn't expect our progress would be this fast," Galiano Tiramani says. "We are absolutely hitting on all cylinders."
Around 40,000 investors have ponied up approximately $130 million for Boxabl's record-breaking crowdfunding effort on StartEngine. Venture capitalist Zain Jaffer, the co-founder of mobile advertising firm Vungle, which was acquired by Blackstone for $750 million in 2021, is also an investor in Boxabl.
Having raised a total of around $150 million for Boxabl so far, including a strategic investment from D.R. Horton, America's largest homebuilder, the Tiramanis plan to revolutionize the industry with advanced factory processes and automation of the type that enable car makers like Tesla to roll a completed vehicle off an assembly line in less than one minute.
Boxabl's assembly line employs CNC machines that cut panel materials with extreme precision. The panels are then assembled without the traditional need for thousands of nails and small sticks of lumber. The homes have spacious-feeling interiors with nine-foot ceilings. They fold down to one-third of their full size for shipping over roadways without the need for special permits, then unfold onsite in an hour on average. The homes are fire, bug, water, and mold-resistant, and can withstand hurricane-force winds.
As it currently stands, Boxabl has already cut down manufacturing time for one of its basic units from a day to four hours since launching in early 2022. With a customer waiting list of 160,000 that accounts for $10 billion worth of orders if fully realized, the company has produced around 400 of its basic units so far, including an order for 156 homes through a contract with the US Department of Defense.
Elon Likes It!
Boxabl's introduction of new, advanced production techniques to the homebuilding industry likely played a part in Elon Musk's decision to buy one of the first houses produced by the company last year and to have it shipped to his company SpaceX's rocket facility in Boca Chica, Texas. After trying the modest but elegant home on for size, Musk announced that he enjoyed its "cozy" feeling. He reportedly uses it now as a guest house.
In a recent interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Paolo Tiramani, an industrial designer and successful entrepreneur with dozens of patents to his credit, said his company's ultimate goal is to build a home every 60 seconds. The new second factory will shave production time down to just 20 minutes once its operational by the end of the year, according to the elder Tiramani.
Further down the road, Boxabl plans to build a third factory at a cost of $1 billion where its homes will roll off the line at the target rate of one-a-minute or less. Eventually, the company plans to make next-day shipping of homes available through Amazon Prime.
###
