Tesla 4680-Type Battery Cell Production Nears 1 Million/Week

It's already enough for more than a thousand Tesla Model Y cars per week.

By: Mark Kane

Dec 26, 2022 at 11:02am ET

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Tesla announced this week that the Kato Road pilot battery facility in Fremont, California achieved a new production milestone.

According to the company's tweet, the team managed to produce roughly 868,000 4680-type cylindrical lithium-ion battery cells during the last 7 days.

Tesla added also a reference that such a number is enough for more than 1,000 electric cars. Currently, the only model equipped with the 4680-type battery cells is the Texas-made Tesla Model Y.

"Congrats to the 4680 cell team on achieving 868k cells built in the last 7 days—equal to 1k+ cars!"

Tesla 4680-type battery cells at the Tesla Giga Texas

Previously, we heard that the facility produced a cumulative number of one million 4680-type cells in February (since production started in 2020).

We don't know what the current cumulative number is, but with 10 months now down the road, it should be more than 10 million units.

If we combine the latest news with the previous info that the Tesla Giga Texas plant has produced 3,000 Model Y cars per week for the very first time, it turns out that no more than about one-third is equipped with 4680-type battery cells (Tesla Model Y AWD).

It means that the remaining 2,000 Model Y/week were Long Range AWD versions, powered by 2170-type battery cells.

Annual output

Many of us wonder what is the annual output of Tesla's pilot battery facility in California.

Well, if we combined the number of more than 1,000 Model Y cars and 50+ weeks per year, the production rate might be at 3.5-4 GWh/year. That's about one-tenth of the output of the Tesla Gigafacotry 1 in Nevada.

What do you think?

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Tesla initially said that the pilot production line is expected to produce 10 GWh of batteries annually. That's a lot, but still not enough for 5,000 Model Y cars per week (250,000 per year) in Texas, which is the target.

It means that Tesla will have to start volume production of 4680-type battery cells also at the Giga Texas site to make the full switch to 4680 in Texas and support the Tesla Cybertruck's launch.