Tesla 4680 battery cell production increasing more

The Tesla 4680 battery cell expect to become the new benchmark in vehicle battery technology as it offers significant advantages over the previous generation.

The 4680 is a new battery format that Tesla introduced in 2020 as the first automotive component to be developed from scratch. Until now we have not had a clear look at the progress of its production.

The last official data point Tesla announced was the first 1 million batteries completed at its pilot plant in Fremont in February 2022.

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Since then, Tesla has published only a few statements about percentage increases in its production rate without confirming the actual production rate.

Now, the automaker has confirmed for the first time the actual production rate, stating that the team produced 868,000 4680 batteries in the last week. This is enough to produce over 1,000 Model Y vehicles.

Alongside the pilot plant in Fremont, the automaker is also generating a larger volume of production at the Texas plant in order to achieve a shorter supply chain.

The 4680 battery only needs 830 cells, and Tesla changed the design so that there are only two soldering points per item, reducing soldering to 1,660 points, which leads to significant cost savings.

Elon Musk has recently reiterated that Tesla doesn’t need the 4680 batteries this year to meet its production targets, but will need them next year to ramp up production with new models like the Cybertruck.

[via]