SHANGHAI — Tesla will construct a manufacturing facility in Shanghai to fabricate its large-scale energy-storage battery often known as the Megapack, the Chinese language state information company Xinhua reported on Sunday.
Tesla, which is owned by Elon Musk, will break floor on the plant within the third quarter of this yr and begin manufacturing within the second quarter of 2024, Xinhua reported.
The brand new manufacturing facility will complement Tesla’s present plant in Shanghai, the place it makes electrical automobiles, and it’ll initially produce 10,000 Megapacks a yr, equal to round 40 gigawatt-hours of power storage, to be offered globally, Xinhua stated.
With the brand new plant, Tesla will reap the benefits of China’s dominant battery provide chain to extend output of its Megapacks, and to decrease their prices, in hopes of assembly the rising world demand for power storage because the world shifts to utilizing extra renewable power.
Tesla generates most of its cash from its electric-car enterprise, however Mr. Musk has dedicated to increasing its photo voltaic power and battery enterprise to roughly the identical measurement as its automotive enterprise.
The Chinese language battery big CATL has been deepening its collaborations with purchasers, together with Tesla, in provides for energy-storage batteries. CATL’s chairman, Robin Zeng, expects energy-storage batteries to have a bigger market than batteries powering electrical automobiles.
Tesla already has a manufacturing facility for its Megapacks in Lathrop, Calif., the place it could actually manufacture 10,000 items yearly.
The corporate started producing its Mannequin 3 vehicles in Shanghai in 2019, and is now in a position to produce 22,000 vehicles there per week.
Tesla has struggled with rising stock in Shanghai as demand started to weaken within the third quarter of 2022, resulting in aggressive value cuts in its main markets globally in January.
Development in gross sales of electrical automobiles in China, the world’s largest auto market, has slowed to roughly 20 p.c within the first two months of 2023.
