Tesla has officially announced that the Giga Berlin-Brandenburg plant in Grünheide near Berlin produced 1,000 Model Y in a single week.
It's an important and expected milestone in the production ramp-up, as several days ago, it was reported that the plant is close to 1,000/week.
Tesla's CEO Elon Musk congratulated the team:
"Congratulations to Giga Berlin team on making over 1000 cars in a week!"
At 1,000 units per week, the annual production rate is at about 50,000, but of course, it's still an early stage, as the plant is expected to produce more than 500,000 units annually.
Production at the Giga Berlin-Brandenburg plant started later than originally planned (in March) due to long waits for permits. The ramp-up is also progressing slower than anticipated, as according to Electrek, a level of 1,000 units per week should have been achieved in April. The rumored main bottleneck was the paint shop's output.
Tesla currently produces in Germany only the Tesla Model Y Performance version, powered by 2170-type cylindrical battery cells, as far as we know shipped from China (LG Energy Solution). Other versions (Long Range) and with new features (including structural battery pack) are in preparation.
Troy Teslike reports that during the first three months (March, April and May), the plant produced some 8,865 Model Y. That's half of what the Tesla Giga Shanghai was able to do, when launching the Model 3 and Model Y.
On the other hand, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Europe is experiencing some tough times and especially manufacturing has been hit hard by all kinds of shortages.
Moving forward, European production plant will be a major strengthen of Tesla, both in terms of production volume, as well as logistic. Geographical diversification is an important thing on top of vertical integration, especially in difficult times.
Below we attached the latest drone flyover videos from the site:
Tesla Gigafactory 4 (aka Tesla Giga Berlin) at brief:
- located in the Berlin-area (in Grünheide, Brandenburg, Germany), near the new airport
300-hectare property - preparations started in mid-February 2020, while construction works started in late May 2020
- target: production of Model 3/Y starting in 2021 with the Model Y (missed)
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officially launched in March 2022
production rate of 1,000 Model Y per week achieved in mid-June 2022 - expected to to produce batteries (modules/packs and later also 4680-type battery cells) and powertrains
- expected volume of 500,000 annually (unofficial target), initially 150,000 or so
- expected investment of €4 billion (unofficial)
- expected 10,000 jobs (unofficial)
- New tech: 4680-type battery cells, structural battery packs, mega castings (front and rear part of the car) and innovative paint process (Geico Taikisha), but initially will start with 2170-type battery cells
