With an annual production capacity of 500,000 vehicles, Tesla's total global production capacity has reached a new peak.
Text/Zhang Xianglong
After Nevada, New York and Shanghai, Tesla's fourth gigafactory in the world, the Berlin plant, has finally officially opened, and the first 30 Model Y electric vehicles have been delivered to owners.
Just as when the Shanghai Gigafactory started, Musk danced awkwardly in the Berlin factory. But if Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory started a year, Musk's awkward dance is a natural excitement statement, then now Musk is awkwardly dancing Berlin again, and the posture of "dancing with hands and feet" should hide more excitement after going through twists and turns.
The preparation of the Tesla factory in Berlin lasted nearly two years, more than double the construction time of the Shanghai factory, during which it went through many audit procedures such as environmental protection, ecology, law, etc., and even stopped work because of animals at the construction site.
In the second half of last year, the Berlin factory actually had a basic production capacity, but because it has not yet obtained the final factory production qualification, it has been delayed until now, and it is said that the relevant approval documents alone have more than 20,000 pages.
In terms of location, Tesla's Berlin factory is located in the Gruhead area near Berlin, Germany, which is the largest industrial area in eastern Germany, the factory covers an area of 3 million square meters, nearly 4 times that of the Shanghai Gigafactory, and the total investment is about 5.5 billion US dollars, which is almost equivalent to the total investment in the Shanghai Gigafactory.
At present, there are 3,500 employees working in the factory, which can provide up to 12,000 jobs, and after the official production of the first quarter of this year, Tesla's Berlin plant will produce 30,000 Model Ys in the first half of the year, with a total design annual production capacity of 500,000 vehicles.
Not only model production, Tesla's Berlin factory also includes a 4680 battery pack production base, theoretically designed for 50GWh for the whole year, but the time when the battery factory is officially put into operation is later, possibly in the second and third quarters of this year.
That is, the Model Y currently delivered by the Berlin factory, which is not yet available for the 4680 battery, is still using the 2170 battery supplied by the Shanghai factory.
Another interesting information is that the battery factory of CATL in Turingia, Germany, is only 300 kilometers away from Tesla's Berlin factory, and the production capacity of the caterer's factory in 2022 is expected to be 14GWh.
It should be said that Tesla's battery factory in Berlin is currently the largest battery production base in Germany. Volkswagen had previously planned to set up six battery plants in Europe by 2030, with a total planned capacity of 240GWh.
However, the battery factory in Salzgitter, Germany, which cooperates with Guoxuan Hi-Tech, will start mass production by 2025, and it is not as good as Tesla's Berlin factory in terms of production capacity.
There is also an interesting data comparison, Tesla's annual production capacity of 500,000 new cars designed for the Berlin factory will exceed Volkswagen's total sales of 452,900 electric vehicles in the world in 2021, and will also far exceed Volkswagen's sales of electric vehicles in Europe last year.
Last year, European electric vehicle sales exceeded 1.2 million, Volkswagen sold about 300,000 or so, although Tesla only sold less than 200,000 new cars in Europe last year, but that was in the case of full imports, and now it has been localized production, this year Tesla's European new car sales are likely to double.
Finally, after Tesla's Berlin factory was officially put into operation, although the Shanghai factory 2170 battery was used at this stage, with the supporting of the 4680 battery pack, due to the difference in the supply chain between the two places, the models of the Berlin factory were fine-tuned in other aspects relative to the models of the Shanghai factory, which is also a place worthy of attention.
However, for domestic Tesla prospective owners, the most direct impact is that with the official production of the Berlin factory, the export share of the Shanghai factory to Europe must be reduced, and the delivery waiting time of domestic Tesla prospective owners will also be reduced.