SAN FRANCISCO: Tesla Inc chief executive Elon Musk said on Wednesday the company will produce Model Y with a new structural battery design and technology at its Berlin factory next year and that could result in a "significant production risk".
The US electric carmaker plans to mke a new version of its Model Y crossover vehicle, and possibly even battery cells at the site. Last month, Musk said that Tesla will use its Germany-based plant to demonstrate a radical overhaul of how its cars are built.
The company plans to start the production of Model Y at Gigafactory Berlin during the second half of 2021.
Tesla’s new battery cell — a larger cylindrical format called 4680 that can store more energy and is easier to make — is key to achieving the goal of cutting battery costs in half and ramping up battery production nearly 100-fold by 2030.
The company’s new structural battery pack requires the new 4680 battery cells in order to work.
Musk said on Wednesday that it will take about two years for Tesla factories in Fremont and Shanghai to embrace the new technology.
"Fremont and Shanghai will transition in 2 years when new tech is proven," Musk said in a tweet.
The company said last week that it delivered 139,300 vehicles in the third quarter, a quarterly record for the electric carmaker.
It is aiming to produce 500,000 cars this year, according to an internal email Musk wrote to employees.
Tesla said in January that 2020 vehicle deliveries should comfortably exceed 500,000 units, a forecast the company has left unchanged despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This all comes down to Q4. Please take whatever steps you can think of to improve output (while increasing quality)”, Musk wrote to employees on Wednesday.
Tesla’s delivery push has been supported by its new Shanghai factory, the only plant currently producing vehicles outside California, as it is also building a new vehicle and battery manufacturing facility near Berlin.
