we should see more and more electric trucks on the roads, but not in Europe

Tesla recently announced that it will invest $3.6 billion in its Nevada factory. It will expand with two new production sites, the first for the new 4680 batteries and the second to house the assembly of its electric truck, the Semi. This shows Tesla’s great ambition for the coming years to remain the leader in the electric car.

The past few months have been quite uncertain for Tesla. If the brand broke the sales record by delivering more than one million cars worldwide in 2022, it faced many challenges, especially at the end of the year. Indeed, sales have plummeted, particularly in China and the United States, leading to steep price cuts to sell off the Model 3 and Model Y’s stockpiles. IOn even expected the company to experience its worst year in its history in 2023 due to increased competition from Chinese brands. But it wasn’t based on big price cuts that allowed demand to start picking up again.

Heavy investment

But this does not scare Elon Musk, who even plans to doIncrease Tesla investments. And the Gigafactory in Nevada will be particularly affected. As stated in a blog article published on the manufacturer’s website, the latter already exists It has invested more than 6.2 billion dollars In this field of production since 2014. As a result, more than 7.3 billion battery cells were produced, which is equivalent to 37 GW/h per year. For comparison, let’s note that the Chinese giant CATL, currently established in Europe, produced 100 GWh in 2021.

This is one of the reasons why the company announced a huge new investment. 3.6 billion dollars, or the equivalent of 3.3 billion euros at the current exchange rate. As the site mentions Electrekwe are a long way from Tesla’s original plans at the timeinvests only 3.5 billion dollars in this factory, producing 35 GWh of batteries annually, employing 6,500 people. This investment will increase to 100 GWh batteries per year.

Today, the site has at least 11,000 employees3,000 new jobs are planned as part of the expansion of the American Gigafactory. Two new sites will also be built with this new investment, but things are not entirely clear yet.

Tesla expects up to 250 GWh of energy per year after expanding its Berlin plant. That’s enough to supply about 4 million cars a year, in addition to the million allowed by the future plant in Nevada.

Electric truck and new batteries

In its post, Tesla emphasizes that two new factories will be built. The former will manufacture the new 4680 batteries that power some Model Ys produced in Austin, Texas. In one week last December, 868,000 cells were produced, enough to power nearly 1,000 cars. With additional production in Nevada, the pace should continue to accelerate further, allowing for democratization. these batteries are cheaper and have better densityand therefore increased autonomy.

Thus, they will allow us to wait for the arrival of solid-state batteries, which, according to experts, should not happen for several years. The second factory will host the production of the Tesla Semi, the first deliveries of which were made late last year. If the electric truck is already assembled in this Gigafactory, this new line should allow for faster speeds.

Once that work is done, Tesla plans to do just that assemble five electric trucks per week. In total, 500 units should be produced annually in the US, while orders are not yet open in Europe. As such, Tesla will then have to compete with more traditional brands such as Volvo and Renault Trucks. However, the latter now offers smaller models designed for other uses and shorter trips. Because let’s remember that Semi could travel up to 800 kilometers with a load of 37 tons.

With the price changes and new prices for Tesla in 2023, one thing is clear: the market will be flooded with Model 3 and Model Y. Let’s get back to why and how…
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