Tesla’s Giga Berlin-Brandenburg plant in Grunheide in Germany is humming with activities. The manufacturing of the Tesla Semi, the long-delayed electric truck that the company recently announced would ship by the end of this year, is taking place at this plant. While Tesla semis would roll out from the factory what’s coming in BYD’s flagship blade batteries (long cells, LFP chemistry). With the first batch already delivered, cars carrying this brand-new technology would start rolling out from the factory by the end of this month. This means we would soon see entry-level Tesla Model Y with LFP batteries.
Before Tesla struck this deal with BYD, LFP batteries for Tesla models manufactured in China and California were provided by CATL. In Germany, Tesla till now produced cars equipped with 2170-type cylindrical battery cells (from LG Energy Solution’s Chinese plant). However, all the batteries that would be used now in the cars that roll out from Gige Berlin would most likely constitute a test batch, going by BYD’s battery unit FinDremas’ claim that mass use of BYD’s blade batteries by Tesla would not be seen until next year.
Tesla Shanghai produces Model 3 and Model Y and when it reaches its full capacity of manufacturing, which is not so far now, it will produce 750,000 cars per year. However, the Shanghai plant has no plans to use BYD batteries in the cars manufactured there. Tesla’s California plant produces Model S and Model X. Finally, Giga Berlin and Giga Texas can produce 250,000 vehicles per year and both plants focus on Tesla Model Y. All of Tesla’s factories running full-throttle the company can add 1.9 cars onto the roads each year.
