Tesla’s Shanghai battery plant Megafactory officially started operations on Tuesday.
According to Electrek, Tesla held an opening ceremony at its Megafactory in Shanghai’s Lingang Free Trade Zone, marking the start of full-scale production.
The plant has an annual production capacity of 10,000 Megapacks, equivalent to approximately 40 GWh (gigawatt-hours) of energy storage. This is Tesla’s first Megapack production plant outside the United States.
Tesla plans to begin shipping Megapacks produced at the Shanghai plant to Australia, an early adopter of its large-scale energy storage systems. Direct shipments from China are expected to improve the Australian market’s efficiency.
Industry reports suggest that while Tesla’s core automotive division faces declining revenue and profit margins, its energy storage business is experiencing remarkable growth. This surge is primarily attributed to the high demand for Megapacks and increased production at the California Megafactory.
With the Shanghai Megafactory fully operational, analysts project a 50% increase in Tesla’s energy storage installation capacity compared to last year.
Meanwhile, competition in the energy storage market intensifies as Tesla’s battery cell suppliers, BYD and CATL, introduce products similar to the Megapack.
