After starting production late last year, Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin has finally achieved “volume production” by producing 5,000 electric cars in a single week. This milestone is significant for Tesla, as the company generally considers 5,000 units per week as the goal when ramping up a new vehicle to volume production at a new factory.
Initially, Tesla aimed to achieve this goal by the end of 2022, but the ongoing global supply chain crisis made it a challenging target. Instead, the company announced a respectable production rate of 3,000 Model Y vehicles per week at Gigafactory Berlin in 2021, which increased to 4,000 units per week in February.
Giga Berlin hits 5k builds/week—1 year after delivering the first vehicles to customers pic.twitter.com/PZigSaSci5
— Tesla (@Tesla) March 25, 2023
The recent milestone of 5,000 units per week suggests that the factory has beaten Gigafactory Texas to the important milestone. If the production rate is maintained, Gigafactory Berlin can produce over 250,000 vehicles annually. Moreover, Tesla is now approved to produce 500,000 vehicles per year out of the factory.
With the Model Y production goal achieved, Tesla is expected to add a new model to Gigafactory Berlin’s lineup, although the company hasn’t commented on the plan in a while. The original plan was to introduce Model 3, but Tesla may have other ideas. Recently, Tesla applied to authorities for permission to expand production at Gigafactory Berlin to 1 million vehicles per year.
The expansion will require the factory’s footprint to be developed further, and the company needs to obtain environmental approval before proceeding. Future production lines are expected to feature Tesla’s new unboxed manufacturing process, which the company unveiled at the Investor Day earlier this month.
