Tesla rumoured to delay volume production in Berlin until 2023

According to a media report, Tesla will only produce around 30,000 vehicles in the new factory in Grünheide by the end of the year. Currently, around 350 Model Ys are coming off the production line in Grünheide each week.

Tesla wants to increase production to 1,000 per week by the end of April, as Automobilwoche reports with reference to company circles. The start of a second shift is not planned until the end of June. According to the report, real volume production in Grünheide will not take place until 2023.

One possible reason: according to Automobilwoche, Tesla has not yet hired enough staff. Citing an analysis by the consulting firm ANP Management Consulting, it says that around 3,500 employees are currently active in the individual trades.

In the run-up to the start of production in March, there were already reports in other media that production in Grünheide this year would remain far below the capacity of 500,000 vehicles in the first expansion stage. At the time, however, the reason given was not staffing but the supply of parts. The battery packs with 2170 cells currently installed are probably still being supplied from the Gigafactory in Shanghai, which is also where the motors currently installed come from. Since Gigafactory Shanghai, as Tesla’s export centre, needs many of the components itself, the supply from Grünheide is limited.

The switch to 4680 cells from the company’s own battery factory, which is currently under construction, should provide a remedy. Here, too, “Automobilwoche” provides an update: vehicle production is to be paused for three weeks in autumn in order to retool the production facilities for the 4680 cells and the structural battery packs. However, no month is mentioned, only autumn.

But the report does not mention whether the battery factory in Grünheide will also be in operation then. Should the Giga Berlin then still be dependent on 4680 cells supplied from the USA, another potential bottleneck could open up. It is also unclear whether Tesla will then continue to build only the Model Y Performance in Grünheide or expand production to include other variants. Shortly after the start of deliveries, Elon Musk had indicated that he wanted to build more models in Germany in the future.

Currently, Model Y with 4680 cells are only built in Giga Texas, which opened in early April. There are no details about the vehicles yet.

automobilwoche.de (in German)