Tesla Gigafactory

[MontyFloyd]

Not official, semi rumors:
Latest word is Berlin has full approval (non verified, from YT video), and so does Austin.
Also reported both factories will officially being production early next year (I think Austin is still under construction in certain areas, but 1st of 4 in Berlin is finished)

Production will be limited at first according to YT source (cant recall name right now), but sure to ramp up quickly.

And Cybertruck will go in production in Austin soon(tm)!

And China is also expanding.

 

[DarkandStormy]

Not official, semi rumors:
Latest word is Berlin has full approval (non verified, from YT video), and so does Austin.
Also reported both factories will officially being production early next year (I think Austin is still under construction in certain areas, but 1st of 4 in Berlin is finished)

Production will be limited at first according to YT source (cant recall name right now), but sure to ramp up quickly.

And Cybertruck will go in production in Austin soon(tm)!

And China is also expanding.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1472176869617373184

Berlin not fully approved. Now will open at least 6 months after stated opening (July 2021)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1472701739174350851

Sounds like no production, even limited, out of Austin this year. Another missed goal.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Sounds like no production, even limited, out of Austin this year. Another missed goal.

Surely that was a stretch goal.

 

[JRP3]

Don't you realize any aspirational goal that is missed is just another broken promise from Elon?

 

[Cosmacelf]

Don't you realize any aspirational goal that is missed is just another broken promise from Elon?

But you promised you'd take me to Disneyland...

 

[DarkandStormy]

Surely that was a stretch goal.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1382876290663927808

 

[JRP3]

There you go, written in stone, another broken promise from dastardly Elon! I mean it's not as if he's almost always wrong with his projections so we should definitely treat them like concrete dates...

 

[wdolson]

Despite all the timing prediction misses by Elon, Tesla is still way out ahead of the competition. It's almost certain they will be the first company to produce 1 mil BEVs a year.

I think it's pretty impressive that Berlin and Austin will likely come online in 2022, even if Elon said late 2021.

 

[MontyFloyd]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1472176869617373184

Berlin not fully approved. Now will open at least 6 months after stated opening (July 2021)

My understanding is this is for EXPANSION of factory.
Only 1 of 4 is built, and that 1 has all permits.

 

[FlatSix911]

Competition is coming... and that's a good thing for increased production capacity in the USA.

13 battery gigafactories coming to the US by 2025 – ushering new era of US battery production

There are 13 new battery cell gigafactories coming online in the US by 2025, according to the Department of Energy....

electrek.co

Now the Department of Energy has issued a report listing all the battery factory projects in the US:

“In addition to electric vehicle battery plants that are already in operation in the United States, 13 additional plants have been announced and are expected to be operational within the next 5 years. Of the 13 plants that are planned, eight are joint ventures between automakers and battery manufacturers. Many of these new plants will be located in the Southeast or Midwest.”

Here’s the full list published by the Department of Energy last week:

Manufacturer	Location	Expected Opening
Ford	Northeast of Memphis, TN	2025
Ford & SK Innovation	Central KY	2025
Ford & SK Innovation	Central KY	2026
General Motors & LG Chem	Lordstown, OH	2022
General Motors & LG Energy Solution	Spring Hill, TN	2023
General Motors & LG Energy Solution	To be determined (TBD)	TBD
General Motors & LG Energy Solution	TBD	TBD
SK Innovation	Northeast of Atlanta, GA	2022
SK Innovation	Northeast of Atlanta, GA	2023
Stellantis & LG Energy Solution	TBD	2024
Stellantis & Samsung SDI	TBD	2025
Toyota	Southeast of Greensboro, NC	2025
Volkswagen	Chattanooga, TN	TBD

 

[MontyFloyd]

Competition is coming... and that's a good thing for increased production capacity in the USA.

13 battery gigafactories coming to the US by 2025 – ushering new era of US battery production

There are 13 new battery cell gigafactories coming online in the US by 2025, according to the Department of Energy....

electrek.co

Now the Department of Energy has issued a report listing all the battery factory projects in the US:

Here’s the full list published by the Department of Energy last week:

Manufacturer	Location	Expected Opening
Ford	Northeast of Memphis, TN	2025
Ford & SK Innovation	Central KY	2025
Ford & SK Innovation	Central KY	2026
General Motors & LG Chem	Lordstown, OH	2022
General Motors & LG Energy Solution	Spring Hill, TN	2023
General Motors & LG Energy Solution	To be determined (TBD)	TBD
General Motors & LG Energy Solution	TBD	TBD
SK Innovation	Northeast of Atlanta, GA	2022
SK Innovation	Northeast of Atlanta, GA	2023
Stellantis & LG Energy Solution	TBD	2024
Stellantis & Samsung SDI	TBD	2025
Toyota	Southeast of Greensboro, NC	2025
Volkswagen	Chattanooga, TN	TBD

What I see is a LOT of them will be very late into battery race.

What I have read is it takes a lot of time to get a factory producing full capacity. Tesla 4380 batters have been in production for several months apparently, but yields have been low (70%).
It is expected full production will be in early 2022, but still months away from now.

It is a good bet to say Tesla is FAR, FAR in the battery race, and has priority contracts with raw material suppliers?

 

[FlatSix911]

What I see is a LOT of them will be very late into battery race.

What I have read is it takes a lot of time to get a factory producing full capacity.
Tesla 4380 batters have been in production for several months apparently, but yields have been low (70%).
It is expected full production will be in early 2022, but still months away from now.

It is a good bet to say Tesla is FAR, FAR in the battery race, and has priority contracts with raw material suppliers?

Agreed regarding 4680 Batteries... here's a recent update from Electrek.

Tesla gives rare update on 4680 battery cell production: still some work to do

Tesla has released a rare update on 4680 battery cell production, which is critical to launching the automaker’s upcoming new...

electrek.co

Today, with the release of its Q2 2021 financial results, Tesla released a rare update about its progress toward that goal:

We have successfully validated performance and lifetime of our 4680 cells produced at our Kato facility in California. We are nearing the end of manufacturing validation at Kato: field quality and yield are at viable levels and our focus is now on improving the 10% of manufacturing processes that currently bottleneck production output. While substantial progress has been made, we still have work ahead of us before we can achieve volume production. Internal crash testing of our structural pack architecture with a single-piece front casting has been successful.

In short, Tesla managed to get some progress done, but they still have more work to do before achieving any volume production.

 

[MontyFloyd]

Agreed regarding 4680 Batteries...

here's a recent update from Electrek

as in 5 months old, but supports more recent rumors the 4680 is coming very soon(tm)

 

[mspohr]

Can a Tiny Territory in the South Pacific Power Tesla’s Ambitions?

Nickel is vital to electric car batteries, but extracting it is dirty and destructive. A plant with a turbulent history in New Caledonia is about to become an experiment in doing it better.

www.nytimes.com

 

[MontyFloyd]

Can a Tiny Territory in the South Pacific Power Tesla’s Ambitions?

Nickel is vital to electric car batteries, but extracting it is dirty and destructive. A plant with a turbulent history in New Caledonia is about to become an experiment in doing it better.

www.nytimes.com

I read this:

And in part because nickel mining is so energy intensive, manufacturing electric vehicles emits nearly twice as much carbon dioxide as does producing cars run on fossil fuels, according to Trafigura.

Long term is good, but short term is not.

Semi-Good news is:

Prony Resources is promising to halve its carbon emissions by 2030 and become carbon neutral 10 years after that. Waste from the plant, which is currently held in a tailings dam as a toxic sludge, will be filtered and transformed into a less corrosive dry waste, using a new system with $420 million in investment.

And that is one of dozens of mines...

 

[wdolson]

I read this:



Long term is good, but short term is not.

Semi-Good news is:

And that is one of dozens of mines...

Those supposed analysis of the carbon footprint of EVs vs ICE cherry pick the data. They ignore a lot of carbon sources in ICE production, fuel production, and driving and exaggerate all the carbon sources.

One thing that reduces the carbon footprint of ICE production is almost all the steel used in ICE is recycled because we've reached a point where most of the cars produced outside of China are replacing an old car and the metals are easily recycled. The batteries in EVs require some materials that can't be recycled right now because there isn't enough of it in circulation. Once we get to a point where most batteries are recycled, the need for new materials will go away.

Even if EVs are fueled from coal the carbon footprint of fueling them is less than ICE. Few people know how much energy goes into getting oil out of the ground, moved to the refinery, refined, transported to a gas station, and put in a car's tank. Refining oil into gas consumes 8-16 KWH of electricity from the grid, plus consumes about 1-2 gallons of oil from each barrel of oil (42 gallons), which is another 30-60 KWH of energy.

EVs can be fueled from many fuel sources ranging from renewables to coal. But using fossil fuels for stationary electricity generation is more efficient than any motor vehicle use.

Most of EV production has less of a footprint then ICE because the vehicles are mechanically simpler. Though the footprint is similar.

 

[SageBrush]

I think it's pretty impressive that Berlin and Austin will likely come online in 2022, even if Elon said late 2021.

Indeed. If Elon had said 'we anticipate starting production within 8.5 months' but it turned out to be 9.5 months, would the eeyores still be crying ?

Future looking statements are not promises. WTF is wrong with people ?

 

[TechOps]

Increased activity lately at Giga Texas.

Today, I was taking pictures of the factory from downtown Austin in the morning and afternoon, because I think it's cool how it's totally camouflaged in the morning light, and then by afternoon it's brightly visible.

But this evening, I suddenly noticed that it quite aglow, which is something new. On the Tesla Daily episode, I saw the comment from Joe T. that they're starting production this week. Looks like the lights are on and someone's home!

Sorry about the poor quality.. zoomed-in iPhone pics.

 

[MontyFloyd]

The batteries in EVs require some materials that can't be recycled right now because there isn't enough of it in circulation

You mean cannot be sourced from recycled batteries?
AFAIK it is possible to 99% recycle a Li- battery.

 

[wdolson]

You mean cannot be sourced from recycled batteries?
AFAIK it is possible to 99% recycle a Li- battery.

Yes, the materials can't be sourced from recycled material because there is not enough recycled material in the supply chain (like there is steel). Over time this will change as we mine enough of those materials and enough old Li-ion batteries wear out and get recycled.