Tesla released a new important detail about the Megafactory under construction in California.
It aims to produce 40 GWh of Megapacks per year, which indicates a massive ramp-up in energy storage deployment.
Last month, we learn that Tesla broke ground on a new “Megafactory” to produce Megapack batteries in Lathrop, California.
The new factory came as a surprise since there were no rumors of it and Tesla never made an announcement.
We only learned about it after Sonny Dhaliwal, mayor of Lathrop, shared images of a groundbreaking event for the new factory.
Until yesterday, we knew nothing more about the “Megafactory” other than it would produce Megapacks, Tesla’s biggest stationary energy storage product.
At Tesla’s shareholder’s meeting, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was asked what was the planned production capacity of the new Megafactory.
The CEO didn’t know on top of his head, but another Tesla executive reminded him and confirmed that Tesla planned to produce 40 GWh annually at the plant.
Musk continued:
40 GWh. Yes. Actually, that’s an example of where we are expanding, also we are expanding manufacturing in California. So, this is in California, we just opened a big megapack production facility.
This is nothing short of massive since Tesla is currently deploying energy storage capacity at a rate of roughly 4 GWh per year.
We are talking about a 10x increase just from that new factory, and that 4 GWh rate also includes Powerwall and Powerpacks.
It would likely take a long time for Tesla to ramp up to that production capacity considering battery cells are still believed to be a bottleneck.
At the meeting yesterday, Musk reiterated that Tesla plans to prioritize cell supply for its electric vehicles, and that “excess cells” are going to go to Megapacks.
But the CEO also reiterated that Tesla plans to buy all cell supplies from manufacturers that perform well and are reasonably priced on top of the automaker’s own effort to manufacture its own cells.
Musk even said that he told suppliers that they could increase production by 100% and they would buy everything.
The “Technoking” of Tesla also maintains that the energy storage business should reach the same size as the automotive business.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
