Photo: Tesla
At Tesla’s 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, Elon Musk confirmed two rumors that were kind of obvious. The first is that the company’s headquarters will move to Texas. The second is that no future product will see high volume production in 2022, probably because of development issues the company is facing with the 4680 cells.
Regarding the first “rumor,” the fact that SpaceX is in Texas and that Musk moved there were enough pieces of evidence to anticipate any official announcement. The Tesla CEO also mentioned that Fremont is crammed, which would be another factor for moving to Texas.
That does not mean that Fremont will cease to be necessary. On the contrary, Musk said he wants to raise productivity there by 50%. Moreover, when Giga Texas starts to operate, it will allow Tesla to improve its only plant in the U.S. without risks of reducing production volumes. Giga Shanghai is currently Tesla’s most significant car plant after beating Fremont.
The second rumor was also something that even Musk warned about. Without the 4680 cells, no new product will be possible, and the latest assessments of how things were going showed that Musk’s worse predictions for it were the most accurate ones. In other words, the production version of the 4680 cells will only be ready by October 2022.
This is why Musk said that the Cybertruck will only reach assembly lines by the end of 2022 and reach high production volumes only in 2023. That’s when the company expects to start manufacturing the Semi and the Roadster. For that to happen, Musk said he needs enough cells for all Tesla vehicles.
He even said that if Tesla had five extra products, the production output would not change because of supplier shortages. According to the Tesla CEO, chips are only part of the problem. If the Semi or the Roadster were already fully developed, Tesla would not be able to manufacture them anyway.
The Semi would need a massive amount of cells, which is another issue. Musk said the priority is to high-volume vehicles, such as the Model 3 and the Model Y. If they need more cells, all the other cars would have to wait.
That does not mean that Fremont will cease to be necessary. On the contrary, Musk said he wants to raise productivity there by 50%. Moreover, when Giga Texas starts to operate, it will allow Tesla to improve its only plant in the U.S. without risks of reducing production volumes. Giga Shanghai is currently Tesla’s most significant car plant after beating Fremont.
The second rumor was also something that even Musk warned about. Without the 4680 cells, no new product will be possible, and the latest assessments of how things were going showed that Musk’s worse predictions for it were the most accurate ones. In other words, the production version of the 4680 cells will only be ready by October 2022.
This is why Musk said that the Cybertruck will only reach assembly lines by the end of 2022 and reach high production volumes only in 2023. That’s when the company expects to start manufacturing the Semi and the Roadster. For that to happen, Musk said he needs enough cells for all Tesla vehicles.
He even said that if Tesla had five extra products, the production output would not change because of supplier shortages. According to the Tesla CEO, chips are only part of the problem. If the Semi or the Roadster were already fully developed, Tesla would not be able to manufacture them anyway.
The Semi would need a massive amount of cells, which is another issue. Musk said the priority is to high-volume vehicles, such as the Model 3 and the Model Y. If they need more cells, all the other cars would have to wait.
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