Tesla‘s factory near Berlin built 7,000 Model Y vehicles in a single week, a new production record for the plant as it pushes toward a 7,500-a-week target set for October.
“Ramp-up is in full swing at Giga Berlin. This week we hit the next production milestone: 7,000 Model Y built in one week,” Tesla’s manufacturing account said on X on Friday.
Plant Manager André Thierig called it a “huge achievement” by the team. “Making 7,000 cars in a single week is hard work for the entire team! And we will keep ramping from here. Job is not done!” he wrote.
The plant reached the figure running around the clock on weekdays only. Asked on X whether the factory runs 24/7 or takes days off, Thierig replied “24/5.”
That puts output at about 1,400 vehicles per production day. A full year at 7,000 a week would equal about 364,000 vehicles.
Still short of 7,500
The record leaves the plant about 500 vehicles a week below its stated goal.
Management told staff in June it would lift output to 7,500 a week from October and hire 1,000 more people, according to dpa. Thierig said cycle time across much of the factory would fall to 45 seconds from about 80 seconds.
By early September, the plant was still building fewer than 6,500 a week, Handelsblatt reported. Tesla scheduled mandatory special shifts on September 18, 19 and 25, with an internal email targeting 7,500 by mid-October.
Engineers had largely hit the 45-second cycle time by then, but output had not followed, according to the same report. The plant produced about 450 cars per shift at the time.
The jump has been steep. Thierig said in June the plant was building “just about 5,000 cars a week”, which he called “the maximum we can squeeze out of supply chain.” Tesla first reached 5,000 a week in Grünheide in March 2023.
Thierig said in April the plant had built “more than 61,000 MY” in the first quarter, which he called a record.
Tesla said in its third-quarter shareholder letter that it “attained record production at Gigafactory Berlin.” It also said battery availability remained the limiting factor on its global vehicle ramp and that its passenger car backlog was the largest in four years.
A New Utilization Record
The ramp follows a weak 2025. Tesla Manufacturing Brandenburg built about 202,000 vehicles last year, about 9,000 fewer than in 2024, according to its annual report. That was 54% of installed capacity.
Revenue fell to about €7.1 billion ($8 billion) from about €7.7 billion ($8.6 billion). Net profit rose to €77.1 million ($86.4 million) from €56.8 million ($63.6 million).
Tesla lists Berlin’s installed capacity at more than 375,000 Model Ys a year in its quarterly updates. The plant’s 2022 permit allows up to 500,000.
The plant built its 500,000th Model Y in March 2025 and marked its 750,000th vehicle in May. It employs about 12,000 people including battery operations, after Tesla said in April it would hire 1,000 workers as European orders rose. Thierig has put total new hiring this year at up to 3,500.
Labor relations remain tense. A non-union list led by Works Council Chair Michaela Schmitz won about 41% of the March works council vote, while IG Metall’s share fell to 31%. IG Metall has asked a labor court to annul the result, and sued Thierig for defamation in February in a dispute later settled.
More than 30 markets
Berlin builds only the Model Y. Its lineup now spans the refreshed Model Y, the Performance version and the cheaper Model Y Standard, which Tesla began building there in November 2025.
The plant supplies more than 30 markets, Tesla says, and expects to add more.
The most notable addition is Canada. Tesla began shipping German-built Model Ys to Canada in 2025 to avoid the counter-tariff on US-built vehicles. Thierig said Canadian homologation rules differ from Europe’s, forcing changes to supply chains and processes. Berlin also supplies Taiwan.
Germany itself has turned. Tesla’s German registrations more than tripled in September to 12,552, the highest monthly total since December 2022, helped by the country’s reinstated federal EV incentive.
Thierig has been candid about costs. “We will never achieve the cost-effectiveness of Shanghai,” he said in June, arguing the plant still works once logistics and trade costs are counted. Tesla has about 90% localization among its direct Tier 1 suppliers in Europe.
Cells next, a new hall later
The next product at Grünheide is not a car. Tesla plans to produce 4680-format battery cells on site from the first half of 2027.
The project was revived in December 2025 at 8 GWh a year. In May, Tesla more than doubled the target to 18 GWh, adding $250 million in investment and more than 1,500 jobs. The cells will use a dry-electrode process.
Thierig has said Tesla will have invested almost €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in cell production by 2027. Tesla says Grünheide will then make everything “from the battery cell to electric vehicles” at one site, a setup it calls unique in Europe.
Today the plant uses lithium iron phosphate cells from CATL and nickel-based cells from LG Energy Solution, plus 4680 cells shipped from Texas.
The larger expansion is moving again. Tesla plans to file in December for a second production hall of about 536,000 square meters, more than twice the existing 219,000-square-meter building, according to rbb. Construction is pencilled in for 2027, with the full build-out spanning about ten years.
Tesla has not said what the new hall would build. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has pointed to the robotaxi.
“From a next major product standpoint, I think most likely is the Tesla Cybercab,” Musk said in an interview with Thierig that Tesla posted on X in February. He also cited “possibilities of Tesla Optimus” at the plant. Tesla advertised its first European Cybercab engineering role in Berlin in March.
Thierig was more cautious in June. He said no decision had been made on whether the Tesla Semi, the Optimus humanoid robot or the Cybercab would be Berlin’s next product.
“Which product comes to Berlin and when depends on the market,” he said. He added that Tesla would keep building cars “for a very long time”.
Cybercab production is currently limited to Texas, where Tesla aims to deliver its first units to customers by year-end.
The Semi is coming to Europe from the US. Tesla plans demonstrations in the first half of 2027 and customer deliveries by the end of that year, with trucks built at its Nevada plant. Dan Priestley, Tesla’s Head of Semi, said at IAA Transportation in September that no decision had been made on a European plant.
A nearer candidate is the six-seat Model Y L. It received EU type approval late last year and was spotted testing in Germany in July. Tesla builds it in Shanghai and Texas and has not said where European units would come from.
