Producing a battery electric vehicle is anything but cheap. Sourcing the materials, for one, is a challenge in and of itself. However, before the Tesla Cybertruck entered production, the company aimed to crack the code, making it faster, cheaper, and more efficient to manufacture 4680 batteries through dry-coating rather than the current method, wet-coating. Unfortunately, Tesla has yet to crack the dry-coating method needed to make 4680 batteries fast enough to hit production targets. That means the current capacity for the Tesla Cybertruck’s production is well under the astonishingly high demand for the stainless steel vehicle.
Tesla aims to produce a quarter of a million vehicles annually by 2025. According to Reuters, Tesla’s Giga Texas factory is only churning out 4680 battery cells at a rate sufficient to power around 24,000 Cybertrucks a year. Tesla’s issue isn’t dry-coating the anode of the 4680 cells but the cathode, which is the most expensive component in a battery. Inside a lab, dry-coating anodes and cathodes are proven methods for smaller energy storage devices such as small batteries. However, this is the first time anyone has tried implementing this method for much larger EV batteries.
Tesla’s progress with scaling up 4680 production could gain steam. Currently, production capacity is limited to just one plant located in Fremont, California. Panasonic, one of Tesla’s battery suppliers, plans to build at least two plants in the United States, which could also help boost 4680 battery production and increase Cybertruck production. However, it would still be a far cry from the 250,000-a-year goal the company currently has in mind.
While Tesla is busy trying to iron out the wrinkles for faster mass production of its batteries, reservation holders for the Cybertruck will have to wait to get their hands on the pickup. Based on our last report, the Cybertruck has over 1.9 million people awaiting their chance to get their own Tesla pickup, and with a production capacity of just 25,000 units per year, it will take some time to bring those numbers down. That’s not including the newest orders that Tesla has likely received since launching the configurator.
