At last month’s Battery Day event outlining its technology goals, Musk said Tesla will continue to buy battery cells from existing suppliers including Panasonic Corp., LG Chem, and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. but also has begun making its own cells on a pilot production line in Fremont. It will ultimately produce only about 10 gigawatt-hours of batteries each year, whereas a full-scale Tesla battery-cell facility will have a capacity closer to 200 gigawatt-hours, Musk said.
The filing with the Texas regulator in July was part of a permit-by-rule registration process allowing the company to construct equipment for use at the manufacturing facility. GHD Services Inc. submitted the registration on Tesla’s behalf.
Tesla’s senior vice president for powertrain and energy engineering, Drew Baglino, did not respond to requests for comment by voice mail or email.
Tesla currently makes the S, X, 3 and Y models at its Fremont plant and manufactures batteries at its gigafactory near Reno, Nevada. But the Austin factory, which Musk estimates will be completed before another plant under construction in Berlin, appears to co-locate battery production with vehicles.
