Tesla officially applies to build battery cells at Gigafactory Berlin

Tesla has officially applied to manufacture battery cells at Gigafactory Berlin. It’s expected to be among the first locations to produce Tesla’s new 4680 cell.

At its “Battery Day” earlier this year, Tesla unveiled its own battery cell, the Tesla 4680, and explained its plan to produce its own battery cells for the first time.

Tesla is currently ramping up production at its pilot production line in Fremont, California.

As we previously reported, Tesla has designed the entire production system called Roadrunner in-house, and it’s currently using the production line to improve on its machinery with the goal to deploy a full-scale factory using the production system.

Tesla is believed to be planning to deploy these full-scale battery cell factories at its current Gigafactory projects in Berlin, Texas, and China.

Based on how construction has been progressing, it looks like the battery factory in Berlin could be among the first to be ready.

Now we learn that Tesla has officially applied to the state of Brandenburg for approval for battery production at the factory (via RBB24 and translated from German):

The electric car manufacturer Tesla has officially applied to the state of Brandenburg for approval under emission control law for the production of battery cells in Grünheide (Oder-Spree) as ancillary equipment for vehicle production. The US group has completely revised its application documents and submitted them to the State Office for the Environment, the Environment Ministry announced on Thursday.

As part of the updated application, Tesla also reportedly added to body lines and revised down its expected water consumption at the plant.

CEO Elon Musk has previously disclosed that Tesla plans to deploy between 100 and 250 GWh of battery production capacity at Gigafactory Berlin:

I think it will possibly be the largest battery cell plant in the world. I think it will be the largest. It will be capable of over 100 GWh per year and possibly over time, it will be going over 200 to 250 GWh. I’m pretty confident that at that point, it will be the largest battery cell plant in the world.

Tesla is going to need those cells for its Model Y production at the plant, but the automaker did say that it would initially use its battery cells produced in Fremont to support production.