April 4, 2023: Tesla Giga Berlin has accomplished "mass production", producing 5,000 new Model Ys in one week for the first time.
Tesla claims to have reached the milestone less than a year after the first cars left the factory. Along with the announcement, they have also uploaded a time-lapse video displaying the 5,000th car rolling off the production line.
The automaker has been putting more effort into increasing production. After starting production at the end of 2021, it ended the year 2022 with a significant production rate of 3,000 Model Y vehicles a week at the Giga factory in Berlin, despite the ongoing disruptions in global supply chains.
Photo by Charlie Deets on Unsplash
At the end of February 2023, the Giga Berlin factory reached another milestone of producing 4000 cars per week. A month more and Tesla Gigafactory Berlin launched 5,000 Model Y electric crossovers in one week.
It is assumed that more than 250,000 vehicles can be produced per year if this production rate can be maintained. This is a huge boost for automakers looking to increase production volumes and significantly reduce waiting times.
But Tesla has bigger plans. The automaker this month applied to expand Giga Berlin, which produces 1 million cars a year. This will take place within the existing buildings of the factory complex.
By treating and reusing water used during production, Tesla will also be able to scale production to 1 million vehicles without the need for additional water supplies. But, environmental activists complain that Tesla is pumping too much groundwater for the products in their factories. Complaints arose that green forests have been destroyed and protests are going on against the automaker.