GigaTexas 4680 Ramp Up Success
On June 16th, Tesla’s team at Gigafactory Texas announced that they had produced their 10 millionth 4680 battery cell - a milestone that means the facility’s work to ramp-up cell production is paying off.
That’s 10 million cells produced since the factory began making them earlier this year, mind you. Tesla started building the Texas 4680 production line during the second half of 2022, and didn’t reportedly start production until sometime in January this year - as far as anyone outside the company can tell, anyway.
And while producing 10 million batteries inside about five months while upgrading equipment is an impressive ramp up, industry insiders are suggesting that the company would likely need to produce about 10 million 4680 cells per week in order to support Model Y and Cybertruck production at GigaTexas.
Tesla’s not planning on making their Texas facility handle all that alone of course - The largest amount being made by Tesla in-house comes from their Fremont factory in California - which has a cell production rate of about 868,000 4680 cells per week as of December 2022.
The company also began upgrading their Nevada facility in February to include an expansion to that factory’s battery production lines - so GigaTexas certainly isn’t alone in producing Tesla’s top-of-the-line cell.
Adding to that, Tesla is receiving production help from partners CATL and Panasonic - and with both of those companies investing in land for new factories in North America, it’s safe to say that won’t be changing any time soon.
What this milestone does signal is that GigaTexas is getting to a place where it can at least partially support its own production lines. It’s invaluable to have a production line for batteries close at hand in case of transportation slowdowns from partners or other facilities - especially when the Cybertruck’s production is right around the corner.
Tesla’s highly anticipated pickup truck will be the second vehicle in their fleet to make use of the powerful 4680 battery cell, and in order to support the higher production rates of not just Cybertruck - but also the company’s popular Model Y crossover - Tesla has been committing to huge investments in their battery production chain.
Back in April, Tesla's Q1 earnings meeting saw lengthy updates on the company’s 4680 plans given by Tesla’s senior VP of engineering - Drew Baglino.
Baglino assured investors that Tesla was making good progress on their roadmap for the 4680 set out back in 2020 when the battery was unveiled at the Battery Day event. That roadmap laid out a plan all the way into 2026, and detailed the path to scaling up battery production across the company - while making moves to bring higher percentages of their battery stock entirely under the company’s umbrella - and eventually removing the need for partners at all.
That part is very far away from now, but a much closer goal broke ground on May 8th - Tesla’s Lithium Refinery had started construction.
One of the biggest bottlenecks to ramping up 4680 battery production was identified all the way back in 2020 - Lithium refining. It’s an expensive, toxic, and (usually) distant process. Tesla has been getting their stocks of lithium from outside North America this whole time - but once their refinery in Corpus Christi Texas is complete, they might not have to anymore.
Using a special, acid-free lithium refining process, Tesla plans to use their facility - the first ever lithium refinery in North America - to produce high-quality battery-grade lithium for their nearby facilities - as well as recycle old cells and manufacturing scrap into usable material.
With all of that happening in the background, GigaTexas hitting 10 million 4680 cells produced seems pretty significant.
The partially complete production line achieved that volume within five months, while the factory was undergoing heavy construction and testing of the Cybertruck production line - and without any material help from the under-construction Refinery in Corpus Christi.
Imagine the numbers GigaTexas will hit once the company’s whole battery ecosystem is on its feet.