Tesla has introduced that it produced its 100 millionth 4680 battery cell. Right here’s what it means for its manufacturing progress.
The 4680 battery cell is a brand new format, 46mm x 80mm, enabled by a couple of new applied sciences that Tesla introduced at Battery Day in 2020.
It’s the primary time that Tesla is manufacturing its personal battery cells – though different cell producers have since introduced plans to construct batteries on this new format.
As with all new expertise, the manufacturing ramp has been troublesome. 4 years later, Tesla has but to achieve its aim for the 4680 cell, nevertheless it did announce an necessary milestone this weekend.
Tesla says that it produced its a hundredth millionth 4680 cell:
https://twitter.com/Tesla/standing/1835019793688048054
The Tesla Optimus humanoid robotic holding the cell has reportedly performed a small, emphasis on “small”, function in manufacturing the cell.
What’s the importance of Tesla producing its 100 millionth 4680 cell?
Cumulative manufacturing will not be a really helpful metric to trace battery manufacturing, however it’s a new knowledge level.
Tesla introduced that it produced its 10 millionth 4680 battery cell in June 2023.
Previous to that, Tesla introduced that it produced its 1 millionth 4680 battery cell in February 2022. Nevertheless, the early manufacturing was at Tesla’s pilot plant in California relatively than Gigafactory Texas. It’s unclear if these rely into the full.
However we now know that Tesla produced 90 million battery cell within the final 14 months.
The majority of that manufacturing is predicted to have occurred extra just lately as Tesla is ramping up manufacturing to assist Cybertruck manufacturing.
Tesla’s 4680 cell is believed to have an vitality capability of roughly 100 Wh, which might imply that Tesla has produced about 9 GWh value of 4680 cells over the past 14 months or sufficient for over 60 ,000 Tesla Cybertruck.
Though, a few of these cells had been seemingly used for Mannequin Y manufacturing earlier than Tesla change to Cybertruck manufacturing.
A month in the past, Tesla mentioned that it produced its first prototype 4680 batteries with its dry coating cathode – an necessary step towards reaching its objectives for the cell.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla seems to be making actual progress by way of ramping up manufacturing of 4680 cells.
Nevertheless, that’s simply a part of the puzzle. The cell is meant to deliver price enhancements, vitality density enhancements, and longevity enhancements. These stay to be seen.
We beforehand shared a report that acknowledged CEO Elon Musk gave Tesla’s 4680 staff by the top of the yr to ship on these enhancements. The CEO himself famous that the necessity for Tesla to supply its personal cell has been lowered as different automakers lowered their EV objectives – releasing up battery manufacturing capability from producers.
Tesla goals to achieve price parity with these producers with its personal battery cell by the top of the yr.