Electric carmaker Tesla has kicked off production in its Gigafactory, which will build cells for the brand’s growing range of electric vehicles.
A joint venture between Tesla and Panasonic, news and rumours of the Gigafactory have been swarming the internet for years, but the time has finally come for it to open its doors and begin producing electric vehicle batteries.
It will be 4.9 million square feet!
Although production has begun, Tesla is still a fair bit off its functioning capacity. Currently, the size of the factory is 30 per cent of its eventual size – with the goal to reach 4.9 million square feet.
Even though it won’t be at fully-functioning capacity from launch, the Gigafactory will be producing Powerwall 2 and Powerpack 2 products from the get go. Cell production for the Model 3 is set to begin later in the year.
Producing as many batteries as the rest of the world
Tesla says that its decision to progressively commence production is to ensure optimum efficiency of construction methods, allowing the electric car brand to change its approach to production if need be. Another reason for the factory’s premature start date is to ensure it keeps up with demand for its new Model 3 electric car, which has already received 400,000 pre-orders.
With the size and production capacity of the Gigafactory set to increase, Tesla believes that by 2018 it will be producing 35 GWh lithium-ion cells per year, which is "nearly as much as the rest of the entire world's battery production combined” – according to the electric car giant.
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