Tesla marked the official start of its second Megapack factory, holding a land acquisition and signing event in Shanghai on Friday morning, signaling the start of the company’s first-ever energy storage system factory outside the United States.
The Megafactory will produce 10,000 Megapacks annually, equivalent to nearly 40 GWh of energy storage for Megapacks, a utility scale battery designed to stabilize grids and prevent power outages. The ceremony comes after Tesla signed a deal in April with authorities from Shanghai’s Lingang district, where the Megafactory will be located, alongside Tesla’s Giga Shanghai.
Construction of the Megafactory is scheduled to start next month, a slight delay from the original timeline of Q3 2023. The original timeline also anticipated production to begin in the second quarter of 2024, but with the delay that will likely now take place in Q3 2024.
The Megafactory is expected to initially source batteries from CATL, with potential plans to transition to in-house battery production in the future, as speculated by industry insiders. The energy storage products produced in Shanghai will not only meet global demand but will also be available for sale in China, according to reports.
Tesla currently has one other Megafactory, located in Lathrop, California. It is one of the largest utility-scale battery factories in North America, and is capable of producing 10,000 Megapack units every year, equal to 40 GWh of clean energy storage.
