When Tesla established its first super factory in Europe in Grünheide, Germany, it was originally planned to build a battery factory. After all, Elon Musk (Elon Musk) tweeted in 2020 that the German factory will test "a lot of new technologies".
Full picture of Glenhead factory
But now, Tesla is transferring some production lines of 4680 batteries, including winding, assembly and shaping, from Germany to Texas, the United States.
On October 17, a reporter from the The Paper learned from domestic insiders that Tesla's battery factory in Germany could not be built due to local environmental protection policies, and the "Inflation Reduction Act" just issued by the United States is also beneficial to the establishment of battery factories in the United States.
In addition, the person familiar with the matter believes that Germany's recent rise in energy costs is not one of the main reasons why Tesla has suspended the construction of German battery factories, "because Germany still retains the automobile factory."
In September 2020, Tesla released its own 4680 large cylindrical battery at its battery day. Compared with the traditional 2170 cylindrical battery, the energy of the 4680 battery will be 5 times that of the former, the vehicle's range will be increased by 16%, and the power will be increased by 6 times.
Previously, according to Tesla's production capacity planning for 4680 batteries, the production capacity of the Kato Road plant in California, the United States will reach 10GWh per year; the production capacity of the Texas battery plant in the United States is expected to be 60GWh within the year; the Glenhead plant in Germany will be 20GWh.
The "German speed" is hard to describe, the bumpy road to production
In fact, in terms of environmental protection, it is not only a battery factory, but Tesla's automobile factory in Germany has experienced ups and downs.
In 2019, Tesla selected a site to build its first European super factory in Glenhead, outside Berlin, Brandenburg, including two parts: the automobile factory and the battery factory, with an investment of about 5 billion euros. The automobile factory originally planned to start production before July 1, 2021, but due to the failure to pass environmental protection approval, time has been delayed.
In early 2020, environmentalists sued Tesla in court on the grounds that Tesla's 300-hectare super factory needed to cut down 430 acres of forest, but Musk promised that every tree Tesla cut, it would plant three more trees in the future. In the end, the court ruled that Tesla won the case. In 2021, environmental protection agencies said deforestation would affect the habitat of animals in the forest and once again sued Tesla.
According to Xinhuanet , in January 2020, the construction of Tesla's Glenhead Automobile Factory was stopped because the German Union for Conservation of Nature believes that the bat near the factory is in hibernation period and cannot be disturbed, and Tesla must transfer these bats. To this end, Tesla found an underground bunker excavated by the Soviet Union during World War II nearby, and under the witness of many media reporters, it transferred the bats to the "new home".
After the land and forest issues, environmental protection organizations have set their sights on the water use issues in automobile factories. Some local media estimate that the Tesla car factory will consume about 3.6 million cubic meters of water resources every year, accounting for about 30% of the local water resources supply. Tesla's "grabbing water" has caused great dissatisfaction among local residents.
To this end, Tesla submitted a 4,000-page report, detailing that the 10,000 concrete pillars that penetrated into the ground will not affect the groundwater source, and reduced the originally planned water consumption of 372 cubic meters per hour to 233 cubic meters per hour.
In early March this year, the Glenhead factory finally obtained the approval report of Brandenburg State . The report includes more than 23,700 pages of 66 documents and more than 80 pages of additional terms, involving groundwater protection requirements, water conservation and pollution reduction measures, species protection measures, air pollutant limits and their measurement regulations, occupational safety requirements, etc. After
was approved, Tesla quickly held the opening ceremony of the Glenhead factory on March 22. However, the good times did not last long. In April, the German National Environment Agency and the Odd-Spree Water Authority said that on April 11, 15,000 liters of paint mixture leaked out in Tesla's paint workshop, and two to three liters of paint leaked onto the road during loading and condensed into blocks.
The local environmental protection organization Green Alliance thus requires relevant agencies to revoke Tesla's factory license until Tesla completes improved laying around the paint workshop to prevent dangerous substances from entering the surface aquifers. The Green Alliance said it would require the Ministry of Environment to intervene if the district does not take action on its request.
The disaster never came alone. At the end of September, an outdoor recycling point in the northeast of Tesla's Glenhead factory caught fire. About 800 cubic meters of cardboard, paper and wood caught fire, causing a severe fire. The local environmental protection organization said: "What we worry most has become a reality. We demand that production be stopped until the reasons are clarified and all safety-related measures in the water protection area are implemented."
It is understood that Tesla's German Gigafactory currently only produces Model Y models. In June this year, the factory's weekly output reached 1,000 for the first time, with the goal of increasing weekly output to 5,000 by 2023. According to auto evolution, if the 4680 battery production line that has not yet been built is moved away, the future German Model Y model will use the blade battery from BYD .
As of this statement, BYD has not yet given a request from reporters to respond to this statement.
With the help of federal government subsidies, it increased the production of 4680 batteries in Texas
Although the production equipment was transferred, Tesla still informed local government officials in Glenhead, Germany that the company did not completely give up its plan to establish a battery factory. However, before that, the company needs to increase the production of 4680 batteries in Texas in the United States faster than originally planned. One important reason why
is given priority to battery production in Texas, USA is that the US federal government passed the Inflation Reduction Act in mid-August, which enacts new electric vehicle tax credits, requiring electric vehicles and key components of the battery to be produced in North America, and American consumers can only enjoy a tax credit of up to $7,500 when purchasing electric vehicles.
In addition, under this bill, electric vehicle battery manufacturers produce batteries in the United States and receive a tax credit of $35 per kilowatt-hour, while battery module manufacturers will also receive a tax credit of $10 per kilowatt-hour.
In addition to hoping to get the relevant tax credits, Tesla is also working to meet strong demand for its vehicles in the U.S. market. In April this year, the first batch of Model Y loaded with 4680 batteries in the Texas factory was delivered to customers, but due to production issues, the Model Y in the Texas factory still mainly uses 2170 batteries.
In the future, Tesla not only hopes to use 4680 batteries on more Texas Model Ys, but also the first electric truck semi-truck that has been delivered in the Texas factory, as well as the electric pickup Cyber truck, which is scheduled to be launched next year, will require 4680 battery support. The launch of semi-truck and Cyber truck has been delayed several times, and one of the reasons is the difficulty of mass production of 4680.
At present, the production of 4680 batteries is still mainly technical problems such as "dry electrode coating". According to two industry experts who are close to Tesla recently interviewed by German Business Daily, the dry electrode coating technology "runs successfully, but lacks large-scale implementation."
It is understood that traditional battery production uses wet electrode coating technology. The wet method requires the use of a solvent of the binder material. The process is to mix the negative electrode and the positive electrode powder with the solvent, and then apply it to the electrode current collector and dry it. In the dry method, no solvent is required, and the extruded electrode material strip is directly laminated to the metal foil current collector to form the electrode. Compared with wet coating, the uniformity and bonding of dry electrode coating are more difficult to control. In addition, the 4680 battery full-length ear technology welding technology is difficult and it is difficult to ensure a satisfactory yield.
In addition, according to the latest understanding, insufficient battery raw materials have also become an important bottleneck in the mass production of 4680 batteries. Previously, a professional team analyzed the disassembly of the 4680 battery and showed that the positive electrode of the battery uses 811 nickel, cobalt, manganese ternary material, and the negative electrode contains carbon without silicon.
It is understood that Tesla recently submitted an application to the Texas Comptroller’s Office, saying that Tesla now plans to build a battery-grade lithium hydroxide refinery in Texas or Louisiana . According to the application, the project will allow Tesla to process "raw ore materials into a state that can be used for battery production." The company said the move was to secure the supply line for its battery production.
Fitch Ratings noted that while regional lithium and nickel mining projects are expected to grow exponentially over the next decade, North America has very insufficient refining capacity, meaning that the raw materials need to be exported to Asia for refining and then shipped back to produce electric vehicle batteries. "Tesla's construction of refining facilities in the United States will enable the company to reduce the operating costs of caused by the use of foreign refining facilities, and will also enable its vehicles to qualify for the U.S. electric vehicle tax credit."
According to the Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. electric vehicle tax preferential policy also includes a key battery mineral raw material requirement, that is, 40% of the mineral raw materials in electric vehicle batteries must be extracted or processed in North America or countries with a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States.
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