Production of Batteries in Tesla
Tesla has based its operations in Gigafactory 1, Gigafactory 2, as well as Gigafactory 3. All in Nevada, New York, and Shanghai respectively. In addition to Gigafactory, the Fremont plant is a supplement in manufacturing. Gigafactory draws its power from the roof where solar panels are established. Besides, wind and geothermal heat contribute alongside Tesla’s self-batteries. Basically, it would be accurate to say that operations in Tesla rely on the local power grid. Tesla focuses more on the formation of a battery; thus, involve discharging and charging manufactured cells. The latter is essential to provide a layer of electrolyte that is solid stable. In fact, the layer impacts positive charges in anode materials. Therefore, the battery cells are installed in Tesla’s car battery packs. According to Waltz (2020), battery packs are developed with thousands of unique individual cells. Nevada Gigafactory 1 integrates the individual cells with joint assistance from Panasonic automakers. The process of forming batteries depend on a high voltage, specialized equipment that discharge and charges the battery. Efficiency in the process guarantees a long-lasting of EV batteries by Tesla.
Formation of batteries is the bottleneck in the process of manufacturing (Waltz, 2020). Therefore, Gigafactory consumes at least 20 hours to discharge and charge cycles. Hence, the new cell of battery made is activated through the cycles. Advanced electric car batteries that drive the worldwide market are the ones with a longer range. After the process of the battery formation is completed, the Fremont plant assembles the battles to Tesla’s Model 3, Model X and Model S vehicles (O’Kane, 2018). Surprisingly, although Tesla plants face hard times in operating space, plant such as Fremont challenges the Toyota factory. In fact, Tesla is competitively advantaged due to long-lasting batteries, leaving companies like Toyota at a less capacity in the market. As the vice president (Chris Lister) in Tesla would agree, the company intends to achieve beyond electric cars (O’Kane, 2018). As a result, Shepherd (2020) says market players, as well as producers such as Ford and VW, are speculated to face their biggest challenge due to the Tesla EV batteries.
Manufacturer Sourcing Tesla
Hanwha group in South Korea, as well as for Panasonic automakers, signed a great deal with Tesla in manufacturing of batteries. Hanwha supply Tesla with equipment to produce batteries. Notably, the battery formation process depends on the equipment as the machine is used in discharging and initial testing of batteries. Besides, the Korean group source Tesla with a piece of machinery to assemble battery cells (Waltz, 2020). Hence the machine to assemble is more useful in Fremont, while the testing and discharging equipment are taken to Gigafactory in Nevada.
Panasonic is an automaker that has its specialization in battery cell equipment manufacturing. Tesla has focused on sourcing cells from Panasonic that are manufactured in Japan for Model 3, Model X and Model S. Besides, Panasonic manufactures cells for Tesla’s Model products customized in Nevada Gigafactory 1. Raw materials are refined by the Panasonic section before being transforming them into cells. Hence, the latter (cells) are applied in Model 3 power as well as other products. In fact, representatives in Tesla praise association with Panasonic as the automaker together with the battery maker have a tight integration (O’Kane, 2018). Notably, it would be right to say that, Tesla is responsible for making drive units by turning the cells made by Panasonic to batteries.