4680 Supplies 1000 Cars per Week
It’s been a pretty good year for Tesla’s production numbers!
In an end-of-year recap posted on Twitter, the company went over a bunch of production and sales milestones. Vehicle production, the new Megapack facility, the first Tesla Semi deliveries, and several more.
But a really telling entry is a bit about 4680 battery cell production. According to Tesla, they’re now producing their biggest cell at such a high volume that they can support the production of over 1000 cars a week.
That's roughly 868,000 cells produced in seven days.
The news originally came on December 25th from the team over at the Kato Road facility in Fremont, California - where Tesla currently produces most of their 4680 cells.
What really makes this impressive is that these numbers are before new production lines in facilities like GigaTexas have been completed.
But this news comes at about the same time we’re seeing GigaTexas hitting Model Y production numbers as high as 3000 per week.
This milestone was definitely helped by the increased 4680 production, we just can’t be sure how much - as GigaTexas manufactures Model Ys with 4680 cells, and the older 2170 cells. But it’s safe to assume that supporting the production of 1000 4680-equipped vehicles per week is a very useful capability for Tesla to have as an in-house operation.
Tesla has been building a huge ramp up of their 4680 battery production in preparation for an expected bump in EV sales over the next few years, as countries like the US have started passing legislation to help incentivise people to buy the greener vehicles.
And these numbers are just for Tesla’s in-house battery production team. For the time being, Tesla is still getting some help from partners like Panasonic - who is about to begin construction of a new battery production facility of their own in the US.
Currently, the only vehicle using the 4680 cell is the Model Y - and the ramp-up in production will certainly help get more of Tesla’s popular crossover shipped.
But the production ramp up could open the possibility of equipping other, newer models should Tesla and its partners reach a point where they’re able to produce more cells than the Model Y production needs.