Tesla continues to ramp up production at its newest plants in Berlin and Austin, although the European facility has an edge over its US counterpart.
Last week, the EV maker announced that Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg in Germany produced 5,000 vehicles in a single week for the first time.
In the past, that has been Tesla's threshold for volume production, and it means the Berlin plant is now able to manufacture some 260,000 vehicles a year if it maintains the current rate.
Now, Tesla has some good news for Gigafactory Texas as well, which was known to make 3,000 vehicles a week in December 2022. The company had not provided an update since then, but yesterday Tesla's official Twitter account announced that the Austin plant reached production of 4,000 units per week for the first time.
Tesla marked the production milestone by posting a short aerial video of factory workers gathered around a Model Y. Tesla wrote on Twitter, "Congrats Giga Texas team on building 4k Model Y this week!"
Tesla has been simultaneously ramping up production at its newest plants, which is no small feat. Interestingly, both facilities reached 3,000 cars per week around the same time in December 2022. Since then, the Berlin plant saw a quick production ramp, reaching 4,000 cars per week by late February and 5,000 in late March.
While the facility in Germany is ahead when it comes to the production rate, the two factories face rather different challenges.
The main difference between them is that some of the Model Y vehicles made at the Texas plant are equipped with Tesla's 4680 battery cells, which are integrated into a structural battery pack chassis design. Gigafactory Texas also makes Model Ys equipped with 2170 cells, while the Berlin plant only makes Model Y vehicles featuring 2170 cells.
Tesla has had issues ramping up production of the 4680 cells in Texas, which has likely impacted production at the plant. The facility is now pushing towards a production rate of 5,000 per week, and it will be interesting to see how long it will take for it to reach that milestone.
What's certain is the internal competition between Giga Berlin and Giga Texas has been beneficial so far, with the two plants reaching production milestones not too far from each other.
