Tesla starts building test vehicles with the newly developed structural battery pack at Gigafactory Grünheide. According to information from Drive Tesla Canada, the employees of the new Gigafactory Grünheide are said to have recently built three Model Y test vehicles with a structural battery pack. This means that these models come with a one-piece front and rear end. The battery then serves as a reinforcement for the body. Individual modules are then no longer necessary. This saves parts and production time. With this solution, the seats will be mounted on the battery, whereas previously they were bolted to the body. The newly developed 4680 battery cells are required for this.
Since the Giga-Press machine at the Gigafactory Grünheide is not yet set up for the production of these castings, the necessary parts had to be delivered by Giga Texas. However, there is a small drop of bitterness, because the new 4680 battery cells are said not to have made it to Grünheide yet. Instead, the structural battery pack is said to have been assembled using a dummy material to mimic the actual cells, unfortunately making the vehicles undriveable.
For the time being, we will probably not get a Tesla Model Y with this update from Grünheide, because as already mentioned, the Giga-Press machines first have to be set up and the construction of the battery factory on the site has to be completed. In all probability, we will initially only see Tesla Model Y from Texas with the new 4680 battery cells. The Texas battery factory is currently designed to produce around 2,000 vehicles per month. Accordingly, not enough to send them to other plants.
Source: driveteslacanada.ca / Image: tesla
