From reply on FB group TSLA…
Lee Davies
The building where the cathode materials will be made is nothing but a field with the steel beams in piles waiting to be built into the cathode plant. It will take a year to build it and get it up and running. The building behind Joe is the battery factory. The windows haven’t yet been installed and they’re still installing equipment inside.
It has taken more than a year to get the yield of 4680 cells up from 30% to 70% so nearly one third of the cells still fail testing at the Kato Rd. Plant in Fremont. They still have a way to go to get the processes to the point where the rejects are not causing a lot of excess expense and losses. They can’t produce 4680 cells while losing so much money. So it looks like they will keep on making upgrades to the Kato Rd. Plant until they’re satisfied the “machines that make the batteries” are good enough for duplication and then they’ll make them for both Giga Berlin and Texas.
The process they will be using is no longer the “wet process” and this new way of making the cells is still in development. If you’re interested, you should watch the Battery Day video from last year.
