Electric car maker Tesla took to Twitter to share the proud moment when the 10,000 Model Y car was rolled off the production line at the Gigafactory in Texas. This is another feather in the hat for Tesla because Gigafactory Texas is still a very new manufacturing plant, it was just opened in April this year. Tesla has four manufacturing plants in the US, a car manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, a battery manufacturing unit in Nevada, a solar factory in New York and the Gigafactory Texas is the newest.
10,000 vehicles produced at Gigafactory Texas is impressive and Tesla expects the Texas-based Gigafactory to be its best manufacturing facility yet. Tesla aims to double its annual production capacity within the next year and has ramped up production at the Gigafactory Berlin and Gigafactory Texas. As of the quarter ending in June, Tesla had an installed manufacturing capacity of 1.9 million vehicles per year but it is difficult to forecast the future capacity as Tesla is not exactly disclosing the production numbers.
Looks like Giga Texas has gained momentum in terms of manufacturing and it might actually start producing 5,000 vehicles per week by the end of this year. Last month as well, there were reports that Tesla has increased production levels to 1,000 model Y per week, and then structural battery packs were also spotted in huge quantities at the Gigafactory Texas which also pointed toward a possible ramp-up in the production rate of Model Y SUVs.
Although the installed manufacturing capacity of Giga Texas is more than 250,000 vehicles annually there are some challenges that lie ahead before ramping up the production. The availability of new 4680-type cylindrical battery cells for structural battery packs is still a bottleneck in the manufacturing process. Tesla was dependent on its plant in California for the supply of 4680-type battery cells to Gigafactory Texas and now it is expected that by the end of this year Giga texas will start producing 4680-type cells in mass volume. Due to this, Tesla had started producing Model Y SUVs with the old battery architecture equipped with 2170-type cells in June.
Potentially in the mid of 2023, we will also see Giga Texas produce Tesla’s next big launch, the Cybertruck all-electric pickup and sometime later the Texas facility might also produce the exciting new roadster vehicle from Tesla. Gigafactory Texas is the company’s new headquarters and is considered as an important part of the company’s global expansion plans.