Tesla Giga Berlin’s Works Council held its first all-employee meeting on Wednesday, where the council discussed the milestones that have been achieved since the factory opened in March, and what employees should expect over the coming months.
A lot was covered at the meeting, but one of the big topics of discussion was the new Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the United States, and how its introduction is going to affect Giga Berlin’s operations, according to sources who shared details of the meeting with Drive Tesla.
Giga Berlin Battery Production
As we have previously reported, the tax credits created as part of the IRA is making Tesla focus their efforts on ramping battery cell production in the US, while at the same time still ramping Giga Berlin’s battery production.
At the meeting today it was confirmed that Tesla is intensifying their efforts around the world to support the accelerated plans for the US. For Giga Berlin, this means as many as 50 employees will be sent to the US to aid in those efforts.
This also means Tesla will temporarily pause some battery production activities at Giga Berlin. One activity that will be moving forward is electrode production, which is expected to begin soon. Crews will also focus on testing and calibrating 4680 production equipment.
Once production begins the company is aiming to ramp cell production enough to add a second shift in 2023.
New Model Y Paint Colours and Variants
So far the factory has only produced Model Y Long Range and Performance variants, and only in black and white, but it looks like that is going to change soon.
We have previously reported Giga Berlin’s Paint Shop completed test vehicles in the new Mercury Silver Metallic and Deep Crimson Multicoat paint colours, which were sent to the US for validation.
According to the Works Council, the new colours are close to being approved, but there is no timeline yet for when they will enter production.
Additionally, Tesla is expecting to begin production of the Model Y RWD with a structural battery pack and 4680 cells at Giga Berlin this year. Test cars with this configuration were built using preassembled parts from Giga Texas his summer.
Production Ramp
Giga Berlin’s production ramp was also discussed after the significant milestone of 2,000 Model Ys produced in a single week was achieved last week.
Over the summer some production line upgrades were completed, with the aim to reduce the amount of time a vehicle is stopped at each station along the line from 90 seconds to 45 seconds. The Works Council said these upgrades were successful, but there are still some areas along the line where timing can be improved.
The company is still targeting to produce 5,000 vehicles per week by the end of the year, despite the fact plans for a full second shift have been pushed back into early 2023.
Local Drive Unit production has also improved since starting in August, and has ramped to more than 100 being produced each day. Productivity has increased enough already for a second shift to be added this month to increase the ramp even further.
