Earlier this week there were rumours that Tesla was going to postpone their plans to begin 4680 battery cell production at Giga Berlin. The speculation was that Tesla was going to instead ship equipment destined for the German factory to the United States to manufacture cells at Giga Texas in order to take advantage of tax credits from the new Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
According to a report by German publication rbb24, Tesla confirmed to some of its partners in the Grünheide region on Friday that they have no intention of slowing down their plans for battery production at Giga Berlin.
In fact, Tesla said the German battery plant will progress faster than originally planned.
At the same time, Tesla said it will also speed up its plans for battery production at Giga Texas to take advantage of the tax credits, somewhat confirming the previous reports.
However, Tesla clarified that the two operations will be ramped simultaneously.
As part of the plans, Tesla could send some workers from Germany to Texas to support the accelerated production ramp in the US.
This shift to accelerate battery production in the US should translate into massive savings for Tesla, with estimates indicating it could reduce the cost to produce 1kWh of battery capacity by over one third.
According to Tesla’s original plans, the Giga Berlin battery plant will have an initial production capacity of 100GWh per year. Over time that capacity will increase to as much as 250GWh per year.
Construction of the facility has been progressing quickly. The exterior of the building is largely complete, and work has begun on finishing the interior. No battery production has been spotted yet on site.
