Elon Musk opens up about Giga Berlin Giga Cast, 4680 cells, LFP batteries, and more

In an early morning tweetstorm today, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has opened about a few more things in connection with the recent Battery Day and production at the automaker’s European manufacturing plant Gigafactory Berlin.

In response to questions from the Tesla Community, Elon Musk said that the first production Tesla Model Y cars will have the latest 4680 cells with Structural Battery and the body-in-white will be front and rear single-piece castings.

Tesla’s Fremont and Shanghai production plants will be upgraded to the latest technologies in about ~2 years as the processes get well established and perfected, he added.

Berlin will use 4680 cell with structural battery pack & front & rear single piece castings. Also, a new paint system.

Lot of new technology will happen in Berlin, which means significant production risk. Fremont & Shanghai will transition in ~2 years when new tech is proven.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 7, 2020

Tesla’s recent acquisition of a sinking battery assembly automation company ATW points in the same direction that Elon Musk has described in his tweet above.

He also explained in his next tweet that Tesla is expecting to make heavy use of the LiFePO₄ (LFP / Lithium Iron Phosphate) batteries in its mid-range cars — which currently are different Model 3 and Model Y variants.

Tesla will also be using LFP batteries for stationary storage use in Megapack and huge energy storage projects such as the one currently underway in California in collaboration with PG&E.

We do expect to make heavy use of LFP for medium range cars & stationary storage
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 7, 2020

What Elon Musk has just revealed has been in the works for a long time as we can see in the following Giga Berlin diecast floor blueprint diagram. There are going to 8 Giga Casting machines commissioned at Gigfactory Berlin, this will be the first large-scale implementation of these machines in an automotive production facility.

For European #ModelY #abouttime https://t.co/v6mGgZt9tD
— Electric Vehicle Guy (@ElecVehicleGuy) October 7, 2020

This is the reason Elon Musk said there will be ‘significant production risk’ associated with this first-time experience. He further said that the Model 3 production hell experience from the past has made Tesla stronger in this area and the Silicon Valley automaker is better equipped to face the challenges this time.

The Model 3 production ramp was sheer agony for two years, but that was do or die for Tesla. No US car company has reached high volume production with sustained free cash flow in ~100 years. Hundreds of car startups all died or were absorbed for peanuts by big three.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 7, 2020

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By Iqtidar Ali