A land acquisition and signing ceremony for Tesla's Megapack project was held in Shanghai on Friday morning, marking the official start of what the company called a "milestone project".
Tesla has officially launched its new Megafactory project in Shanghai, which will produce 10,000 Megapacks per year, according to a statement today.
A signing ceremony for the land acquisition of the project was held in Shanghai on Friday morning, marking the start of what the company called a "milestone project".
The Megapack is a powerful battery that stores and supplies energy to help stabilize the grid and prevent power outages.
Tesla signed a deal with Shanghai's Lingang authorities on April 9 to build the new Megafactory in the area, which will be dedicated to the production of the energy storage product Megapack.
The Megafactory will be Tesla's first energy storage system factory outside of its US domestic market. It is initially planned to produce up to 10,000 commercial energy storage batteries per year, with nearly 40 GWh of energy storage, and the products will be available to the global market.
Construction of the plant was scheduled to begin in the third quarter, with production commencing in the second quarter of 2024, according to an announcement by Lingang Special Area Administration in April.
Today's update means that the start of construction has been slightly delayed.
The Lingang area, where the factory is located, is also home to Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory, which produces electric vehicles (EVs) in China. The EV factory began operations in late 2019 and is now Tesla's largest production site in the world.
(Image credit: CnEVPost)
Tesla's business landscape consists mainly of EVs and renewable energy, and the latter is divided into solar and energy storage units, which are currently available in the form of the Powerwall, Powerpack, and Megapack.
Each Megapack unit can store more than 3 MWh of energy, enough to meet the electricity needs of 3,600 households for one hour, according to Tesla's website.
On December 6, a report from local media outlet LatePost said that Tesla's energy storage battery products will also be sold in China.
The energy storage products planned to be sold in China are expected to help Tesla expand more sources of revenue and profit, with the business, which is currently focused on the US market, bringing in $1.56 billion in revenue in the third quarter, or 7 percent of total revenue, the report said.
Tesla's Megafactory in Shanghai will initially source batteries from CATL, and may later move to producing its own batteries, LatePost said, citing speculation from industry sources.
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