Tesla is adding more shifts at Giga Berlin as it pushes toward a major increase in Model Y production, a move that could eventually help ease the lengthy delivery times facing Canadian buyers.
As we have previously reported, Tesla wants its Berlin factory producing 7,500 vehicles per week by mid-October, up from fewer than 6,500 currently. To reach that level, employees have been assigned three additional shifts in September, covering most vehicle production and supporting operations, according to a report by the German publication Handelsblatt.
Drive unit, battery and cell production are excluded from the extra shifts.
The additional production has been planned for several months. Giga Berlin plant manager André Thierig said in June that Tesla intended to increase output from roughly 5,000 vehicles per week to 7,500 while cutting production cycle times from around 80 seconds to as little as 45 seconds.
The factory has reportedly largely reached that faster production pace, but overall output has yet to catch up.
Tesla is currently producing about 450 vehicles per shift, meaning even with the extra September shifts, output is expected to peak at roughly 7,100 to 7,300 vehicles per week before the October ramp.
The increase could be especially beneficial for Canadian buyers. Giga Berlin now builds a Canadian-spec Model Y for export, and delivery estimates for new Canadian Model Y orders have stretched into 2027. More production in Germany should give Tesla additional room to hopefully increase Canadian allocations.
However, the additional vehicles will not all be earmarked for Canada, and demand across the more than 30 markets supplied by the factory will also play a role.
The increase in production this year follows a quieter 2025 at Giga Berlin, when output slipped to roughly 202,000 vehicles from 211,000 a year earlier. Despite that decline, the factory’s net profit increased to €77.1 million.
Together with this production increase and the increase in the number of employees to support the ramp, Giga Berlin is expected to add roughly 3,500 jobs while also scaling battery cell production to as much as 18 GWh annually.
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