At full capacity, the new plant will produce 500,000 cars annually, more than the 450,000 battery-electric vehicles that main rival Volkswagen Group sold globally in 2021. It will generate 50 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery power, surpassing all other plants in the country.
For now, Volkswagen Group holds the upper hand in Europe’s EV market, with a 25 percent market share to Tesla’s 13 percent.
Musk has warned that ramping up production will take longer than the two years it took to build the plant.
JPMorgan forecast that the factory would produce around 54,000 cars in 2022, increasing to 280,000 in 2023 and 500,000 by 2025.
VW, which has already received orders for 95,000 battery-electric vehicles in Europe this year, is planning a new 2 billion euro EV plant alongside its Wolfsburg factory and six battery plants across Europe.
But its timeline lags Tesla’s, with the new Wolfsburg factory due to open in 2026 and the first battery plant in 2023.
