Tesla marks 1 million 4680 batteries produced

[MEDICALJMP]

https://electrek.co/2022/02/18/tesla-produced-1-million-next-gen-4680-battery-cell/


Tesla announces it has produced 1 million next-gen 4680 battery cells
Fred Lambert
- Feb. 18th 2022 12:11 pm PT

@FredericLambert

Tesla has announced that it has produced 1 million of its next-generation 4680 battery cell at its pilot factory in California.

The announcement comes as Tesla is expected to start deliveries of its new Model Y equipped with its 4680 cell and structural battery pack.

In 2020, Tesla unveiled its new 4680 battery cell, a new tabless cylindrical cell in a much bigger format that the company claimed produces six times the power and five times the energy capacity while significantly reducing the cost.

Since the unveiling, Tesla has been producing the 4680 cells at a “pilot production facility” in Fremont and deploying large-scale production at other factories, including Gigafactory Texas and Gigafactory Berlin.
While Tesla is calling it a “pilot factory,” the automaker had announced a goal to produce 10 GWh of battery cells at the plant, which is more than many other full-scale battery cell factories.

Last month, Tesla’s SVP of engineering, Drew Baglino, said that Tesla was making “meaningful progress” in ramping production at the pilot plant, but he didn’t confirm the production capacity.

Now Tesla has announced that it has produced its one-millionth 4680 cell at the Kato road facility in January:

Celebrating our one millionth 4680 cell in January pic.twitter.com/d19IPFu18u

— Tesla (@Tesla) February 18, 2022

It’s not exactly clear from the phrasing, but it sounds like, as of January, Tesla has produced 1 million 4680 cells.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t give us much information, since the current production rate is the most important metric to know what kind of vehicle production Tesla can achieve from the capacity coming from the pilot plant.
At roughly 1,000 cells per car, 1 million cells is enough for about 1,000 Model Y vehicles to be produced at Gigafactory Texas.
That’s not enough, but if Tesla is able to produce 100,000 4680 cells per week, it would enable the production of 100 Model Y vehicles per week, which would be a good start as the 4680 cells ramps up parallel to Model Y production at the new factory.

Tesla’s upcoming 4680 battery cell / Source: Tesla
Last month, Baglino also said that Tesla doesn’t expect 4680 cells to be a bottleneck for Model Y production ramp at Gigafactory Texas, and he said the company was also making progress in deploying larger scale 4680 cell production at the new factory.

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[swengl]

Thoughts on how the higher range of the 4680 cells will translate to the vehicles? Take for example, the Model Y: will the 4680 pack provide approximately the same range (with a smaller pack) or will they extend the range by maintaining a similarly sized/weighted structural pack of 4680s? I know range isn't everything, but I really hope they break the 400 mile barrier with the 4680s in the Y. It's better to have and not need, IMO.

 

[MEDICALJMP]

Unknown at this time, but according to to Sandy Munro’s prior analysis, in a 74 kWh Model Y battery pack, there will be about 960 cells in total per car. So, dividing 1 million by 960 gives us around 1,041 Model Y cars. This is a very small number of cars considering the demand Tesla is currently facing. That does not even account for Semi, Roadster 2 and our beloved Cybertruck.

Tesla will be scaling 4680 cell production exponentially in the coming weeks and months as Giga Berlin and Giga Austin come on line.

 

[DMC-81]

This is great news for Cybertruck. I remember that the ability to build the CT depended on the production and scaling of the 4680, so we can check that off the prerequisites list. I also like that there will be an adequate baseline of prior vehicles using these cells beforehand.

 

[rudedawg78]

Yes
Tesla needs 5 Trillion cells to support America German China.
.

5 trillion? I think your math is a bit skewed. 1,000 cells is needed per car. 5 trillion / 1,000 = 5 billion.

So are you saying Tesla's requirement to support America/Germany/China is 5 billion vehicles?

 

[Toonces]

Thoughts on how the higher range of the 4680 cells will translate to the vehicles? Take for example, the Model Y: will the 4680 pack provide approximately the same range (with a smaller pack) or will they extend the range by maintaining a similarly sized/weighted structural pack of 4680s? I know range isn't everything, but I really hope they break the 400 mile barrier with the 4680s in the Y. It's better to have and not need, IMO.

Maybe a Super LR M-Y option for $65g’s 350-425…?

 

[Ogre]

This is enough for about 754 dual motor Cybertrucks or fewer than 500 tri/ quad motor trucks (assumes 130 and 200 kWh capacity respectively).

Before they even start with the Cybertruck, they will likely want to have fill the needs of the Model Y which is likely more than 28 million cells a month.


Then to get the Cybertruck online, they need enough capacity for 1000 trucks per week. Since they are starting with the quad motor, it’s likely 8 million cells per month just to start production. To get up to 5000/ week as Musk has suggested, they need somewhere between 35 - 40 million cells per month. (Plus the 28+ million for the Model Y).

Baby steps.

 

[happy intruder]

Jeepers....that is hard to perceive......that a lot of batteries....

 

[Ogre]

Jeepers....that is hard to perceive......that a lot of batteries....

Estimates are based on cell capacity of 98wh. I might be misremembering. It might be a little less energy dense and I might have understated those numbers by 10% or so.

Tesla is talking about producing 100 GWH of cells per year out of Austin.

Which (if my assumed capacity above is correct) is roughly 1,020,408,163 cells per year.

 

[happy intruder]

Estimates are based on cell capacity of 98wh. I might be misremembering. It might be a little less energy dense and I might have understated those numbers by 10% or so.

Tesla is talking about producing 100 GWH of cells per year out of Austin.

Which (if my assumed capacity above is correct) is roughly 1,020,408,163 cells per year.

holy crap......thats a lot....thanks

 

[Cyberman]

A billion batteries, buddy

 

[Ogre]

A billion batteries, buddy

Thats just the warm up round. Tesla is supposed to have that capacity online by end of this year.

Tesla is talking about having 2 terrawatt hours of capacity online by 2030; more than 20 billion cells per year. Perhaps a bit less because they are talking about increasing battery density at the same time!

 

[charliemagpie]

I read eventually hoping for 250GW capacity. (2.5 million cars)

If we follow China's progress, we will be reaching 1 million quickly. And Musk did say batteries will not be a constraint by 2023.


Buy $TSLA

 

[Cyberman]

We're in for a ride this year!

 

[swengl]

Maybe a Super LR M-Y option for $65g’s 350-425…?

If the 4680s are really that much cheaper to produce and the structural battery pack is easier to install, the cost should go down, not up. I would hope Tesla would just replace the current LR model with the 4680 LR with that range and not raise the cost. Their profit margins would be the same (maybe a bit better) and they would have a really compelling product with the longest range in its vehicle class at a fantastic price point. I'll hope against hope for that scenario

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