EV giant Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is preparing to ramp up 4680 battery cell production in Fremont, California.
According to a report by Business Times, citing sources familiar with the matter, the EV company recently signed a lease with the industrial real estate investment trust Prologis (NYSE:PLD) on a 210,000 sq. ft advanced manufacturing facility for essential battery technology that will likely be used for 4680 cell production.
During the third quarter of 2022 Tesla tripled 4680 battery cell output compared to the previous quarter. This achievement was discussed by Elon Musk and the rest of the Tesla board during the third quarter earnings call last year, where the company expressed its intention to further accelerate the ramp-up of 4680 cell production.
“Yeah, [4680] ramp is going well, as Elon said. Total output is up 3x quarter over quarter, and production is tracking to exceed 1,000 car cells per week this quarter as we said last quarter. Our focus is now shifting from 100% ramp to cost and further expanding production capacity in North America, as Elon also mentioned,” said Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhon.
Tesla hit a milestone producing 1,000 4680 cells per week in Q4 of last year. The company plans to expand their Giga Nevada facility to add another 100 GWh of 4680 cell capacity.
“Our long-term goal is to get to well in excess of 1,000 gigawatt-hours of cells produced internally and continue to use the self cell providers. So to be clear, we will continue to use other cell providers. Just that the demand for lithium ion batteries is quasi-infinite and will be for quite some time. So we feel we can scale a lot faster using both suppliers and internally produced cells,” stated Elon Musk at the Q4 2022 earnings call.
Shares of TSLA are up 4.05% near end of trading on Friday.