Tesla confirms 4680 battery cell production now enough for 1,000 cars a week

Tesla has confirmed that its 4680 battery cell production has now reached a level that can support the production of over 1,000 cars a week.

The 4680 battery cell is a new format that Tesla unveiled back in 2020 as the automaker’s first cell developed from the ground up.

In the past, Tesla had been involved in cell development, but it was mainly about tuning the chemistry of existing 18650 and 2170 cell formats.

Now Tesla planned to develop a cell of its own with a much bigger format enabled by a tableless design. Tesla also planned to manufacture the cells itself along through partnerships with existing cell manufacturers.

That was more than two years ago and we haven’t had a clear look at the progress of Tesla’s own 4680 battery cell production.

Tesla has held tightly to its battery cell manufacturing data.

The last official data point that Tesla released was the first 1 million cells completed at its pilot plant in Fremont, and that was back in February 2022.

Since then, Tesla has only released a few statements about percentage increases in its production rate without confirming the actual production rate.

Today, Tesla confirmed the actual production rate for the first time – stating that the team produced 868,000 4680 battery cells over the last week:

That’s enough to produce over 1,000 Model Y vehicles. The cells are used to produce one type of Model Y vehicle with a structural battery pack at Gigafactory Texas.

Alongside the pilot plant in Fremont, the automaker is also establishing higher volume production at the Texas plant for a shorter supply chain.

Electrek’s Take

While Tesla battery supply constraints have eased up over the last year thanks to suppliers ramping up production, a lot of the automaker’s growth in 2023 is expected to be tied to its capacity to ramp up 4680 cell production.

Therefore, this milestone is good to hit just ahead of the new year.

Tesla seemed to have a lot of issues hitting volume production with the 4680 cells, but those numbers could mean that Tesla worked through some of the bigger bottlenecks and now we could possibly see a smoother ramp from here.