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Tesla Begins 4680 cell Manufacturing At Giga Berlin Less Than A Year Since Start Of Construction

According to Brandenburg Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach, who today gave a speech to the state parliament, Tesla has made the Giga Berlin 4680 battery plant operational. Tesla was able to go from ground preparation work for the factory to 4680 cell production in less than a year.

In addition to a state-of-the-art car factory which it inaugurated back in April, Tesla is also building the world’s biggest battery factory in Grunheide Germany. This battery factory, just in its initial phase, is expected to produce 100GWh of battery cells per year.

This number is enough to support a million vehicles annually. However, in the long run, according to Elon Musk, this number could rise to 250 to 300 GWh suggesting long-term production of 2.5 to 3 million vehicles per year just from Giga Berlin.

Cathie Wood and her firm ARK Invest, which are long-term bullish investors in Tesla, believe the EV maker will produce 5 to 10 million vehicles a year by 2025.

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And today we have received a new report confirming Tesla has finished work on the battery plant and that the factory is already in operation. This is exciting news on its own but making Tesla’s achievement even more impressive, the EV maker put the initial frame of the battery plant only in April 2022.

And until May of last year, there was no work done at the location besides ground preparation, with the first visible structure of the battery plant not appearing until the end of the month.

During the construction process, we were able to see Tesla installing steel meshes to support the base of the future battery factory. And the complexity of the foundational work suggested truly gigantic machinery will be installed at the site.

At the battery day presentation, Tesla showed off battery cell chemistry, design, and manufacturing breakthroughs, which have currently been rolled out at the Giga Texas and Giga Berlin.

During that presentation, Tesla emphasized fully autonomous systems supported by gigantic machineries such as those used to do dry electrode coating and test cell viability.

These are multi-story tall equipment that will undoubtedly weigh several tonnes and it’s inspiring to imagine these pieces of machinery already in action at one of the largest battery plants in the world.

Having said that, there is some information that suggests Tesla might have scaled down the scope of the Giga Berlin Battery plant, and that is the reason the EV maker was able to finish the plant in such a timely manner.

Brandenburg Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach in a speech he gave to the state parliament announcing Tesla has made the Giga Berlin battery plant operational added that the company was only producing individual battery components and that “contrary to original plans, the US group has relocated further production steps to the USA because the business conditions there are more favorable due to tax incentives.”

It’s not exactly clear which stages of the 4680 cell manufacturing Tesla moved to the US but an interview Steinbach gave to a German publication suggests Tesla has maintained the most important production processes in Giga Berlin.

As of now, there is a lot we have yet to learn about the 4680 plant at Giga Berlin. And we will be sure to keep you posted once we learn more about the situation. Until then make sure to visit our site torquenews.com/Tesla regularly for the latest updates.

So what do you think? Excited to learn that Tesla has begun 4680 cell production at Giga Berlin? Also, what do you make of Tesla’s decision to move parts of the 4680 manufacturing process to the US? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Image: Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.

For more information check out: Tesla Patents Magnetic Horizontal Windshield Wiper Technology: Amazingly Efficient

Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and The evolution of the EV space on a daily basis for several years. He covers everything about Tesla from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.

Comments

Brad (not verified)    April 21, 2023 - 6:32PM

What does it mean to move parts of 4680 cell production to US? How is this viable? They make part of the cell in Berlin, ship it to the US, make the rest there, and ship it back to Berlin?
Or they start production in US, ship it to Berlin, and finish the cells there? That’s a lot of shipping of materials. Is there still any advantage having a factory in Berlin if it’s not doing all the processing?