The production of the Tesla Model Y for the USA started in March 2020 a little earlier than expected, in China it got off to a good start from the beginning of 2021, and even the German Gigafactory in Grünheide near Berlin started differently than some experts in the German approval system had feared only a moderate delay. The next Tesla factory was also opened in Texas on Thursday Model Y produced, probably for the first time worldwide with the 4680 battery. On the other hand, Tesla has been keeping customers waiting for several other models for years – but as CEO Elon Musk made clear at the launch of the Gigafactory in Texas, the system has.
Tesla in a different mode from 2023
This year Tesla is still busy with scaling, he explained in his speech on the evening of the “Cyber Rodeo” for the Gigafactory in Texas with many thousands of visitors. As Musk also mentioned, growing as quickly as possible will remain the dominant motive at Tesla for a long time to come, but for 2022 he was only referring to the currently available models and especially the Model Y. He had already attributed the potential to this in April 2021, to become the best-selling car of any class in the world.
With the additional factories in Grünheide and Austin, Tesla increasingly has the production capacity for: Both are designed for 500,000 Model Ys per year and are added to the capacity at the main plant in Fremont and in China, which together is at least as high. That makes a potential production of more than 1.5 million Model Y per year once the two new gigafactories are ramped up. The previous world bestseller Toyota Corolla was sold around 1.1 million times in 2020.
Getting to this size has been a priority for Tesla so far, CEO Musk made clear at the cyber rodeo on Thursday. The rest of 2022 is still something to do with it, but he announced a different mode at Tesla for next year: in 2023 there will be a “massive wave of new products,” Musk said. He had briefly listed them beforehand, without the restrictive phrases he usually likes to use: “We will be in production with the Cybertruck next year, we will be in production with the Roadster and with the Semi. It all comes, ”explained the Tesla boss.
500,000 Cybertrucks from Giga Texas
He was more committed than at the telephone conference at the end of January, in which he wanted to give a product update, and also named 2023 for all three outstanding Tesla models, but combined with a “hopefully”. The safest of these seems to be the Cybertruck, with whose prototype Tesla design boss Franz von Holzhausen then drove to Musk on stage (see photo above). In addition, the CEO had previously mentioned that the pickup will also be produced in the Texas factory from 2023. After the ramp-up, it was said that it would reach 1 million vehicles per year, which means just as many cybertrucks with 500,000 Model Y. For the Roadster and Semi, however, Tesla would have to start with another factory or an extension if they are also to be produced from 2023.