Tesla’a new facility in Lathrop of California broke ground in a low-profile manner. The new facility, known as Megafactory, is expected to produce the electric car maker’s largest utility-scale battery storage system Megapack.
So far, Tesla has produced battery systems including Powerwall, Powerpack and Megapack at its plant in Nevada. Now, the company’s production lines are likely to expand to California. The news was first announced by the Lathrop Mayor Sonny Dhaliwal in a Facebook post. With a few pictures taken in the groundbreaking ceremony, Dhaliwal said, “We are proud to be the home of the Megafactory…The future of green energy will be produced right here in our community.”
Mysteriously, the post has been deleted.
▲ The Facebook post has been deleted.
In 2019, Tesla unveiled its utility-scale storage system Megapack, the third stationary storage system following Powerwall and Powerpack. As big as a shipping container, the gigantic Megapack boasts a capacity of 3 MWh. According to data released in July this year, Megapack is priced at $1,235,890 for sales in California (excluding taxes and annual maintenance fees).
Indeed, Tesla targets at meeting the future demand for storage systems. As the number of renewable energy devices increases, storage systems capable of energy distribution with quick responses are required for grids. Currently, Tesla’s storage systems have received good reviews, and they are expected to attract a high amount of future orders. Tesla has established several energy storage projects across the most populous US state, such as the 142-Tesla Megapack project that has replaced a gas-fired power plant in California's Ventura County and the 1GWh power plant project in northern California.
However, the Facebook post has now been deleted, fueling uncertainty over the validity of the news. Tesla has yet to reply to the request for comments, while Mayor Dhaliwal’s office did not answer why the original post was deleted.
By investigating Tesla’s strategies development and operations in Lathrop, foreign media Electrek indicates that the small northern California city has long been a base of the company’s warehousing and logistics business. As per the documents submitted by Tesla to the SEC, the car maker owns a 500,000 ft2 building that is only a 1-hour drive east from its flagship plant in Fremont. It has also rented at least 3 buildings with long-term leases, totaling an area of more than 1 million ft2. Further, Tesla took over an 870,000 ft2 new building in 2019.
If the news is confirmed, it is a good thing for California. In just December 2020, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk, when moving to Texas, bitterly criticized California’s policies. Now, Tesla’s plant expansion plan in California reveals that the company has yet to give up developing its business in the state.
(Source of first image: Tesla)