Giga Berlin has only been open since March, but before the year is out Tesla is planning to add a third shift to the factory, bringing production up to a full 24 hours per day.
As with any new factory, production kicked off with a single shift after the official opening. Thanks to months of preparation and production line testing prior to the launch, Tesla was able to add a second shift just two months later.
The addition of the second shift brought the factory’s production to 16 hours per day, running from 6:30am to 10:30pm each day.
With production steadily increasing and more employees being hired, Drive Tesla has learned the company is targeting December 2022 to add a third shift.
By adding a third shift the factory will be operating around the clock for 24 hours each day. That should allow Tesla to increase production at the factory up to 5,000 Model Y SUVs per week by early next year, a target shared by Drew Baglino, Tesla’s Senior Vice President of Powertrain and Energy Engineering during the company Q2 2022 earnings call.
UPDATE September 12, 9:30am PDT: According to our information the date for the third shift has been pushed back slightly to January 2023. While this is later than originally planned, Tesla is still targeting to produce 5,000 Model Ys per week in Q1 2023.
Giga Berlin is currently producing between 1,200 and 1,500 Model Ys each week. When the factory opened only Performance variants were being produced, but in recent months the factory has added the Long Range variant to their production lines.
The factory has also been testing a number of different production processes in preparation to add them to their lines. Over the last few months crews have built a singe motor RWD Model Y, a Model Y with locally made single piece front castings, and a Model Y with a structural battery pack.
The Paint Shop has also making progress having recently completed the first test of the all-new Mercury Silver Metallic and Deep Crimson paint colours.
