LOS ANGELES (AP) — From the start, little has been typical about Tesla Motors' plan for a $5 billion factory to make batteries for a new generation of electric cars. Tesla signaled this would be no ordinary competition last fall, when it gathered economic development officials from seven Western states and unveiled its vision for a "gigafactory." When The Associated Press filed public records act requests for documents about the competition with each of the five finalist states, none released much useful information and most refused to release anything at all, citing the competitive need to keep their offers secret. In one glimpse behind the curtain of confidentiality, California provided an email from a Tesla official to the governor's senior adviser for jobs and economic development. Tesla will pay about half of the factory's cost; the other major investor is Panasonic, which will manufacture the lithium-ion battery cells and invest in equipment. The last comparable bidding frenzy for a factory, according to John Boyd of the New Jersey-based site selection firm The Boyd Company, involved competition to attract automaker Saturn in the 1980s, at the leading edge of the South's car manufacturing boom. The competition for the gigafactory began at an October meeting at Tesla's auto assembly plant in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Fremont — a rare approach to opening a site selection process. Tesla executives laid out what a winning bid must have: "Green" energy such as solar or wind at a low cost, an affordable and well-trained labor force, good transportation links to Tesla's Fremont assembly plant. California Gov.