After production was suspended from the second week of July due to conversions and various tests were carried out last week with new variants including a Model Y with a structural 4680 battery, normal work is resumed at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Grünheide near Berlin.
Since this Monday, employees have been working in two shifts again and the next intermediate goal is to produce 1500 Model Y per week, as we learned from an informed person. Further new hires are planned – and production will be doubled from October.
Tesla leadership praises German factory
By the end of June, the German gigafactory was making faster progress than the one in Texas, which officially went into operation a good two weeks later in early April. In the middle of the month, Tesla produced 1000 Model Ys per week for the first time, and in the telephone conference on the Q2 numbers, Technology SVP Drew Baglino mentioned that the factory near Berlin is developing strongly. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said both they and those in Texas are likely to hit 5,000 vehicles a week by the end of this year.
In Germany, after the conversions and optimizations, only black and white painted Model Y was built this week, as was heard. Recently, it is no longer mainly the performance variant with which the factory in Grünheide started its series production.
As recently as June, the first Model Y Long Range (LR) was mixed in, and as it is now said, this version was even mainly produced recently. This is said to be related to an issue with the performance drive unit. There had already been speculation about this after Tesla had postponed many deliveries at short notice at the end of June.
One of the factors that have so far inhibited higher production in Grünheide was too much waste from the Giga presses that produce the rear frame element for the Model Y from a single piece, which has now been reported. It is said to have been more than 60 percent in some cases. In fact, containers full of castings have been seen time and time again on the Gigafactory site, and recently we got a photo of a huge pile of them in a scrap yard near Berlin. However, the modifications to the Giga presses during the two-week vacation period are said to have paid off: the scrap rate was reduced to around 10 percent.
3000 Model Y per week starting in October
After up to a good 1000 Model Y per week in June, Tesla has now made 1500 as the next intermediate goal; whether it was achieved proportionally in the first few days could not be found out at first. But from the beginning of August, there should be even more.
That is when Tesla expects the next wave of new production workers, with whom the two shifts so far can be fully occupied for the first time. For the beginning of October, a significant increase in personnel is expected again, with which three shifts can be planned for the first time, albeit with only 80 percent occupancy.
At this level, the German Tesla factory should then produce 600 Model Y per day, initially not on weekends, i.e. 3000 pieces per week. It would be a good deal closer to the goal stated by CEO Musk by the end of the year.
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