Tesla has announced that it produced its 100 millionth 4680 battery cell. Here’s what it means for its production growth.
The 4680 battery cell is a new format, 46mm x 80mm, enabled by a few new technologies that Tesla announced at Battery Day in 2020.
It’s the first time that Tesla is manufacturing its own battery cells – although other cell manufacturers have since announced plans to build batteries in this new format.
As with any new technology, the production ramp has been difficult. Four years later, Tesla has yet to reach its goal for the 4680 cell, but it did announce an important milestone this weekend.
Tesla says that it produced its 100th millionth 4680 cell:
The Tesla Optimus humanoid robot holding the cell has reportedly played a small, emphasis on “small”, role in manufacturing the cell.
What’s the significance of Tesla producing its 100 millionth 4680 cell?
Cumulative production is not a very useful metric to track battery production, but it is a new data point.
Tesla announced that it produced its 10 millionth 4680 battery cell in June 2023.
Prior to that, Tesla announced that it produced its 1 millionth 4680 battery cell in February 2022. However, the early production was at Tesla’s pilot plant in California rather than Gigafactory Texas. It’s unclear if these count into the total.
But we now know that Tesla produced 90 million battery cell in the last 14 months.
The bulk of that production is expected to have happened more recently as Tesla is ramping up production to support Cybertruck production.
Tesla’s 4680 cell is believed to have an energy capacity of roughly 100 Wh, which would mean that Tesla has produced about 9 GWh worth of 4680 cells over the last 14 months or enough for over 60 ,000 Tesla Cybertruck.
Although, some of those cells were likely used for Model Y production before Tesla switch to Cybertruck production.
A month ago, Tesla said that it produced its first prototype 4680 batteries with its dry coating cathode – an important step toward achieving its goals for the cell.
Electrek’s Take
Top comment by Jilles van Gurp
100M cells would enough for around 75K cyber trucks with around 1344 cells each. So, that matches their production ramp-up since the beginning of the year and a few model Ys. And perhaps a few semis.
Interesting to note that the market is heading for over production. Bloomberg NEF is tracking multiple twh of battery factory related investments for next year. So, that means prices might drop. Which is not necessarily beneficial for this particular cell as long as they are still trying to scale up production and reduce cost. Part of the promise of this cell was to use it as a structural component; which means you cannot easily swap it for something else.
When this cell was originally announced, there was actually a battery shortage. And LFP is now pretty common. And soon some solid state battery production should ramp up; possibly to similar levels soonish. So, there is a bit more choice in the market.
Tesla appears to be making real progress in terms of ramping up production of 4680 cells.
However, that’s just part of the puzzle. The cell is supposed to bring cost improvements, energy density improvements, and longevity improvements. Those remain to be seen.
We previously shared a report that stated CEO Elon Musk gave Tesla’s 4680 team by the end of the year to deliver on those improvements. The CEO himself noted that the need for Tesla to produce its own cell has been reduced as other automakers reduced their EV goals – freeing up battery production capacity from manufacturers.
Tesla aims to reach cost parity with those manufacturers with its own battery cell by the end of the year.
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