Tesla reveals plans to open a Megafactory in Shanghai

Tesla Inc. is opening a Megafactory in China, and this was announced by the company and its chief executive officer, Elon Musk, on Monday, April 10, via Twitter. The CEO said the new Megapack factory would supplement the output of the same plant in California.

With the new facility, Tesla will be able to produce 10,000 Megapacks a year. The products are very large batteries that are utilized as storage for utility-scale amounts of electric power. The Megapacks help stabilize the power grid and prevent power outages as well.

Moreover, these type of batteries allows grid operators to transfer extra power capacity between states or counties to make sure that power from intermittent sources can be stored and used in times when the demand is higher or when there are sudden or unexpected outages in a transmission network.

In any case, the company also posted a photo of the signing ceremony for the project that was held in China. As per CNN Business, it was the local media publication, Xinhua, that first reported about Tesla’s Megafactory that will rise in Shanghai. Based on the report, the groundbreaking for the construction of the facility was scheduled to take place in the third quarter of this year.

The operations at the factory will then follow in the second quarter of 2024. Tesla is already running a Megafactory in Lathrop, California, and this facility has the capacity to produce 10,000 Megapack units per year. This amount is said to be equivalent to about 40 gigawatt-hours of energy storage.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the electric vehicle maker generates most of its profits from its electric car business, but still, Elon Musk is committed to growing its solar energy and battery units so these will become big businesses as its EV division.

Photo by: Tesla Fans Schweiz/Unsplash