Tesla is rapidly moving to build ‘battery factory’ in China, report says

A new report from China claims that Tesla is rapidly moving to build a “battery factory” in the second phase of its Gigafactory 3 construction in Shanghai.

In recent weeks, we have been reporting on Tesla ramping up its efforts to start production soon at Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai.

A Model 3 potentially made at the factory was spotted last week, and some reports coming out of China claim that Tesla is starting production this week.

While we are waiting to get confirmation on that, we are also looking at Tesla’s expansion at Gigafactory 3.

Over the last month, we have been reporting on Tesla starting construction on new buildings around the main factory.

There has been speculation about what Tesla is planning to do with these new buildings, which have been called the “second phase” of Gigafactory 3.

Now we learn that it is going to be a battery factory.

China’s Global Times reports:

A battery plant will be built on the site, a person close to the Gigafactory 3’s construction team surnamed Li told the Global Times.

They claim that the second phase is going to be completed much faster than the first phase:

The battery factory will be built more quickly than the Phase-1 area, as it took only a few weeks for workers to erect pillars and roof trusses for Phase-2, while erecting roof trusses in the Phase-1 area took months, according to media reports.

The main building of Gigafactory 3 in the first phase of construction was completed in about six months.

A new drone video filmed on October 11 shows that the new buildings are coming up:

It’s unclear from the report if “battery factory” means that Tesla plans to build battery cells or battery packs at the location.

At the moment, Tesla is reportedly getting its battery cells for Model 3 production at Gigafactory 3 from LG Chem.

CEO Elon Musk originally said that the factory would produce both battery cells and complete vehicles, starting wth Model 3 and eventually Model Y.

Recently, we have seen a ton of evidence that Tesla is moving to build its own battery cells, including Tesla acquiring a battery production expert company, Tesla job listings for battery manufacturing, and several Tesla executives all but confirmed the move during the last shareholder’s meeting.

Electrek’s Take

I’d take this report with a grain of salt for now, but that would be exciting.

I could see Tesla building the factory and preparing for battery cell production with all its recently acquired talent and technology.

Then on the “Battery and Powertrain Investor Day” early next year, Tesla could unveil its plan and announce that battery cell production would start at the factory at the same time.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.