Tesla has just announced that it produces 3,000 Model Ys a week at its Gigafactory in Berlin. An impressive figure, but still below the ambitions of the firm. It wanted to reach 5,000 vehicles manufactured per week in each of its factories, to make the Model Y the best-selling car in the world.
Will Tesla break a new record? In any case, it’s gone for. Indeed, the brand is very successful thanks to its Model 3 but especially to its Model Y, cheaper and which regularly ranks at the top of the ranking of the best-selling electric vehicles on the market. Last September, the SUV even became the best-selling new car in Europe, all engines combined.
Remember also that Tesla hopes that its Model Y will be the best-selling car in the world in 2023, all engines combined. Which would mean overtaking the Toyota Corolla, sold over a million copies in 2021. A real success story for the firm, which was on the verge of bankruptcy at the end of 2008. An investor then saved the brand on the evening of December 24 at 6 p.m..
A high cadence
These difficulties now seem to be ancient history for Tesla, which today would be on the way to breaking a new record. Indeed, the firm now based in Austin, Texas should exceed one million deliveries by the end of the year worldwide. We are then very far from 16,000 cars produced in all of 2016.
And to reach this incredible figure, the American manufacturer relies mainly on its factories. Today, this one has four, in Fremont and Austin but also in Shanghai and Berlin. Enough to guarantee an intense production rate and considerably reduce delivery times. The Chinese assembly site is indeed able to produce 750,000 cars each year, or around 14,000 per week.
What to guarantee fast deliveries, even perhaps a little too much while cars are struggling to find customers. So much so that Elon Musk finds himself with too many Model 3s and Model Ys on his hands, despite lower prices and the return of the sponsorship program in China. But that does not deter the brand, which continues to run its factories at full speed.
As the site reminds ElectrekTesla’s goal is to produce at least 5,000 cars per week in each of its Gigafactory. A very ambitious goal, while the brand, like all manufacturers, is penalized by the shortage of semiconductors which slows down production. But that doesn’t seem to be stopping the automaker from getting closer to that goal.
A new record
Indeed, and as the latter announces on Twitterthe Berlin factory succeeded in producing 3,000 Model Ys in just one week. A record for the production site, which could therefore assemble at least 150,000 cars per year if this rate were maintained. As a reminder, the German Gigafactory currently only manufactures the electric SUV. Once the rate of 5,000 copies per week is reached, other models could arrive on the assembly lines.
Eventually, and as the site explains Automotive NewsTesla would like to expand this site, in order to produce a million cars a year. In total, more than 2.5 million vehicles could then be produced each year worldwide when the German plant is at full capacity. As a reminder, BYD, the world number 2 in electric cars, behind Tesla, produces around 300,000 electric cars per quarter, compared to 150,000 for number three, the German Volkswagen group.
Congrats to the Giga Berlin team on building 3k Model Y this week! pic.twitter.com/uUTOTRrasX
—Tesla (@Tesla) December 18, 2022
But that’s not all, because Elon Musk’s brand also plans to produce batteries in Berlin by next year. If this was planned for 2022, the manufacturer is indeed encountering difficulties in industrializing its 4680 batteries on a large scale. Very promising, thanks to increased density and simpler and less expensive manufacturing, these are currently only produced only in small numbers on a pilot line in the Fremont plant. The American manufacturer is also trying to produce them in volume in the Texas factory.
Today, only certain Model Ys produced in the United States are equipped with it, but that could soon change. These revolutionary cells should notably be present on the brand’s future accessible sedan, known as the Model 2 but which will undoubtedly take a different name. No indication of its launch date and its place of production have been given for the moment, while Tesla remains rather tight-lipped on this subject.
The three main sellers of electric cars worldwide (Tesla, BYD and Volkswagen) have just published their sales figures for the third quarter of 2022. If Tesla has remained largely in the lead since the beginning…
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