Leading American automaker Tesla is reportedly preparing to ramp up the in-house production of its proprietary 4680 battery cells near its Fremont Factory in California.
Business Times reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that the EV giant had leased 210,000 square feet of production space from industrial real estate investment trust Prologis. According to one of the sources, Tesla would use the area for 4680 battery cell manufacturing.
Tesla’s 4680 battery cell production progress
The Musk-led automaker has been elevating its in-house 4680 battery cell production for a long time now.
In Q3 2022, Tesla succeeded in tripling its production output of the battery cell from the prior quarter, with the board approving its ramp-up operation. Tesla’s Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhon confirmed the company’s progress at that time.
“Yeah, [4680] ramp is going well, as Elon said. Total output is up 3x quarter over quarter, and production is tracking to exceed 1,000 car cells per week this quarter as we said last quarter. Our focus is now shifting from 100% ramp to cost and further expanding production capacity in North America, as Elon also mentioned.”
Zachary Kirkhon, Chief Financial Officer at Tesla (via Teslarati)
At the end of 2022, Tesla announced that the 4680 battery cell production output hit approximately 1,000/week.
It is worth noting that Tesla aims to reach an annual production capacity of 500 Gigawatt hours (GWh). That would increase to 1,000 GWh annually as per Tesla’s longer-term objective, as CEO Elon Musk announced at the Q4 2022 earnings call.
“Our long-term goal is to get to well in excess of 1,000 gigawatt-hours of cells produced internally and continue to use the self cell providers. So to be clear, we will continue to use other cell providers. Just that the demand for lithium ion batteries is quasi-infinite and will be for quite some time. So we feel we can scale a lot faster using both suppliers and internally produced cells.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk
See Also:
- Tesla announces 500 GWh annual production target of 4680 battery cells in Nevada
- Tesla adds more Model Y Standard Range AWD with 4680 battery cells to its inventory
- Tesla confirms 1,000/week production rate of its 4680 battery cell
- Tesla’s ramping 4680 battery cell difficulties detailed by experts
- Panasonic to expand battery output at Tesla’s Gigafactory Nevada
Nonetheless, Tesla continues to depend on numerous battery partners, including Panasonic, LGES, and CATL. The electric automaker also assured that the new 4680 battery cell will not affect its current 2170 cells.
