Megapacks Piling Up at Lathrop

Tesla’s Megafactory facility has been ramping up production of the company’s megapack battery storage units, and a recent flyover by a drone operator shows almost 200 new cabinets sitting in the facility’s lot in Lathrop, California.

The shots taken on August 10th show 193 Megapack cabinets across two lots, looking very much like they’re ready to be shipped out.

There are two versions of Tesla’s commercial battery storage unit - a 2-hour model that can store 3,854 kilowatt-hours, and a 4-hour one that can store 3,916 kilowatt-hours. Both models cost over $2 million USD, so the total value of the units in that lot is somewhere between $380 to $500 million USD.

There’s been no hints as to where this many Megapacks could be going - and it’s a good possibility that these have been made for more than one project of course - but this many units means a particularly good quarter for Tesla coming up.

Over 2022 we saw an explosion of new Megapack battery facilities all over the world, as governments say the usefulness of having a battery backup for their ageing power grids in the face of a worsening climate crisis.

Tesla built the Megafactory in Lathrop to take care of that demand, as orders for their Megapacks skyrocketed so quickly that they had to declare the battery units sold out until at least late 2024.

The facility itself is designed to produce 10,000 units per year, and if those all sold it would mean a take-in of about $20 billion - so you can see why Tesla wants to get Lathrop up-and-running as soon as possible.

193 units is a far cry from 10,000, but Tesla is in the middle of building their lithium refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas - as well as about half a dozen similar projects. Even with the lure of $20 billion a year, that’s a lot of plates to spin.

Given some more time, the Megafactory will get those pre-orders sorted out, and more places can start enjoying reliable power.