Attending Tesla’s ‘Cyber Rodeo’ grand opening event for Gigafactory Texas on Thursday, “Teardown Titan” Sandy Munro talked us through the new 4680 battery cells and structural battery packs the electric vehicle (EV) maker is manufacturing at the $1.1 billion USD factory.
Not only will Giga Texas be piping out Model Y cars, but it will be manufacturing ones with structural battery packs featuring the company’s 4680 battery cells. The cells themselves are also being produced in-house at the facility.
Structural pack with 4680 cells!!! pic.twitter.com/Gv9QomLY9a
— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) April 7, 2022
Tesla had already been aiming to produce its 2-millionth 4680 battery cell at Giga Texas well before the Cyber Rodeo event.
At Thursday’s grand opening event and factory tour, Tesla put up displays featuring the new structural battery pack for the Model Y, fully loaded with 4680 battery cells, and the cells themselves. One of the displays featured deconstructed 4680 cells, showcasing Tesla’s patented “tabless” battery tech.
“Made at Gigafactory Texas, our new tabless 4680 cell lowers the cost per kilowatt hour,” read a display sign at the Cyber Rodeo event detailing Tesla’s new 4680 cells and structural battery packs.
“We have everything we need under one roof to produce and assemble the first high-volume structural battery pack using our fully integrated process. The structural pack greatly reduces the number of parts used in both the battery pack and the car, allowing our pack manufacturing line to be less than half the size of the previous factories.”
Impressed with Tesla’s engineering, Munro expressed his admiration for the direction the company has taken with its battery tech. “Everything you can do to make the engineering more efficient, the better the car is going to be. And again, Tesla is leading the way,” said the automotive expert.
Previously, Tesla also showcased a Model Y with a structural battery pack at Gigafactory Berlin.
