Tesla have just completed construction and officially launched production within two brand new factories, known appropriately as Giga Factories due to the immense volume they'll be pumping out once fully up to speed, this brings the total for the company to a whopping 6: Freemont, Nevada, New York, Shanghai and the two newest kids on the block are Giga Berlin (Brandenburg, Germany) and Giga Texas (Austin, USA).

Berlin

Their fourth factory is sited in Europe to greatly reduce the time, cost and carbon emissions created by shipping cars half way around the world to fulfil international orders. Although at this time they'll only be producing the Model Y here, statistics are already proving that to be a contender for their most popular vehicle so the decision is understandable. An on-site battery cell plant will provide a steady supply of the new 4680 modules which are essential for the newly-incorporated structural battery pack and alongside one of the world's most advanced paint shops, these cars promise to be among the best the company has ever delivered. Standing directly adjacent to high-profile competitors like Volkswagen, BMW & Mercedes-Benz on their home ground surely shook up some opposition, but despite months of legislation delays due to lobbying and bureaucracy and at least one incident of sabotage, the project is finally operational and will continue to mature over the coming months.

Construction Started - May 2020
Opened - 22nd March 2022
Time to complete: 22 months
Area: 222,967 sq. metres / 2,400,000 sq. feet
Producing: Model Y (est. 500k/year) & 4680 Battery Cells (est. 50-100Gwh/year)

Tesla love to throw parties and this was certainly no exception, putting on a full county fair for local residents to celebrate the occasion, there were activities and festivities throughout the day and they've released a stunningly detailed look across the production line with jaw-dropping drone footage that you won't want to miss!

The entire construction was documented from the air by some passionate fans on YouTube: the_wolfpack_berlin. With new videos posted each week, it's awe-inspiring to watch the location go from field to functional factory in just 22 months and great to be able to keep an eye on future progress and expansion - if you’re interested, watch Day 1 here.

Texas

The fifth site has been lucky to avoid a lot of the hurdles presented by Berlin despite the construction occurring in parallel for a large amount of time, at one point it almost seemed as if Texas would be finished first despite it's two month handicap and massive scale. For the biggest factory by size in North America which also aims to be the highest-volume car manufacturing facility for the country, it was erected at record pace by three separate shifts of workers for maximum efficiency. Currently only serving Model Ys, it will soon be the birthplace of the long awaited Cybertruck and has a large amount of unallocated floor space leftover likely for Semi or Optimus (Tesla Bot) production in the near future.

Construction Started - July 2020
Opened - 7th April 2022
Time to complete: 21 months
Area: 929,000 sq. metres / 10,000,000 sq. feet
Producing: Model Y & 4680 Battery Cells (& Cybertruck in the future)

As usual, a full-day event was arranged with carnival attractions and some amazing spectacles to wow the crowds and show off the factory, you can watch the highlights including Elon's keynote speech, a drone light show and fireworks display from their Cyber Rodeo event.

Even as Tesla were learning from in-progress projects such as Giga Berlin, they wasted no time putting those lessons into practice to raise Giga Texas even more rapidly which seems ridiculous for a building four times the size, but as before there's full evidential footage (this time daily) to admire just how such a behemoth comes to life so quickly - thanks to Jeff Roberts on YouTube, you can find Day 1 here.

Current and future production

Vehicle production exceeded the 900k mark last year and is targeted to reach well over a million in 2022. As the new factories are ramped-up and other existing locations continue to see rapid expansion these numbers will likely be dwarfed in the years to come, with Tesla aiming to produce 2 million vehicles annually within the next few years, but optimistic yet reasonable predictions see 5 million as a more likely estimate for mid-decade if current trends continue. Regardless, it’s a great step forward in transitioning to a sustainable energy future as historically Tesla simply could not meet surging demand, but it will be interesting to see if that will continue to outpace supply with the additional capacity the new plants provide.

Quarterly and Annual figures since 2020:

*Source: Tesla Investor Relations -* *https://ir.tesla.com/press-release*

All of that is even without the highly anticipated upcoming models which have been teased for so long, but still yet to be released. Happily at the latest public event in Texas, Elon gave reason for fans to celebrate as the Cybertruck, Roadster and Semi are all scheduled for volume production in 2023. There's also a chance that the first version of the Optimus humanoid robot will be deployed next year which may prove to be a turning point for the labour industry and if successful, will force us to change the way we think about the economy.

Thanks to their determination and foresight to vertically integrate as much of their production and process as possible, they've not only managed to avoid the worst of the ongoing supply chain shortages that plague other manufacturers, but still manage to hit record deliveries almost every quarter - a true testament to the vision and efficiency that drives Elon Musk and therefore Tesla, who are both on track to disrupt the status quo in continually innovative ways.

Tesla's production capacity is doubling

Fully Charged Live 2022 was a huge success!

The wireless charging future