Tesla’s Giga Berlin reached a significant milestone last week, producing its 500,000th Model Y. This milestone comes just days after the three-year anniversary of the factory’s inauguration.
500.000 Model Y built at Giga Berlin pic.twitter.com/G5q2HryE83
— Tesla Manufacturing (@gigafactories) March 31, 2025
Tesla first started construction of Giga Berlin in 2020, with the project facing several delays for bureaucratic reasons, and because of protests against the factory by environmentalists. Two years after shovels first hit the ground, Tesla opened the factory on March 22, 2022, with CEO Elon Musk on hand for the occasion.
While Giga Berlin’s production ramp has been slower than anticipated, especially when compared to the likes of Giga Shanghai which came before it, the factory has been able to steadily increase production. By June 2022 the factory had already reached a production rate of 1,000 Model Y vehicles per week, and by October 2022, this rate doubled to 2,000 units weekly.
This upward trend continued, with the factory producing 3,000 vehicles per week by December 2022 and 4,000 per week by February 2023. In March 2023, Giga Berlin achieved a production rate of 5,000 Model Y vehicles per week, equating to an annual run rate of approximately 250,000 vehicles.
When production first started, the factory was only producing the high-margin Model Y Performance, but soon after the factory transitioned to include the Model Y Long Range on its production lines. Giga Berlin still only produces the Model Y in two variants – Rear Wheel-Drive (RWD), Long Range. The factory used to produce the Performance variant as well, but that has been removed temporarily with the introduction of the new Model Y. It is expected to return later this year.
Tesla has plans to expand Giga Berlin and produce upwards of 1 million vehicles annually.
