Tesla to open new factory in Shanghai to make Megapack batteries
Shanghai, China, Apr 10 (EFE).- US electric vehicle maker Tesla announced that it will open a new factory in Shanghai to produce its Megapack energy storage batteries used to stabilize electricity grids and prevent power outages.
“Our next Megafactory will be in Shanghai—capable of producing 10k Megapacks per year,” the Austin-based company tweeted Sunday, US time.
Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported that construction of the new factory will begin in the third quarter of this year, with a view to starting production in the second quarter of 2024.
Tesla already has one of these megafactories in Lathrop, California, where it manufactures about 10,000 batteries annually, equivalent to about 40 gigawatt hours (GWh) of storage.
According to the company’s website, each unit can store more than 3 megawatt hours (MWh) of energy, “enough energy to power an average of 3,600 homes for one hour.”
In 2019, Tesla opened its first Gigafactory outside the United States in Shanghai.
The plant delivered 710,000 vehicles in 2022, which was half of the company’s global delivery, according to the official Global Times newspaper.
Since 2019, the US firm has been boosting its investment in the Lin-gang free trade zone in Shanghai, where its Gigafactory is located.
It has expanded the production capacity of its Gigafactory and built additional facilities, such as a manufacturing plant for its superchargers for electric vehicles, according to Xinhua.
The new Tesla factory is expected to create an industrial cluster of over 100 billion yuan ($14.54 billion), according to a local official, Xinhua said. EFE
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