Tesla To Have Up To 12 Gigafactories, Producing 20 Million Electric Cars Per Year By 2030

Elon Musk stated that Tesla plans to have 10 to 12 Gigafactories around the world, and that their production will be reaching 20 million EV units in 2030. How would this be possible?

Almost nobody doubts that that Tesla has become the leading electric vehicle company in the world. Most established, legacy automaker brands in the field look suspiciously at Elon Musk's firm, which is a mirror in which to look and a very good example to follow given the amazing numbers of electric car manufacturing and sales.

However, Tesla has not actually reached a peak yet; its almost one million cars produced in 2021 are not even close to the future aspirations of the brand, and particularly its CEO, who already aspires to own between 10 and 12 Gigafactories around the world and an annual production of 20 million electric cars in 2030.

These figures would position Tesla at the very top of the ranks of automobile manufacturers. As an example, Toyota was clearly the industry leader in 2021 when it delivered almost 10.5 million vehicles (ICE, Internal Combustion Engine) worldwide. On the other hand, the Volkswagen Group from Germany was able to produce and deliver 8.9 million units. As we can see, Tesla's plans speak of basically doubling these figures in a matter of a few years.

These plans have been confirmed by Elon Musk himself during Tesla´s annual shareholder meeting and the statements were reported by Business Insider. "Ultimately, we will end up building, I don't know, probably at least 10 or 12 Gigafactories" the CEO said, adding that each of them could perfectly have an annual production of between 1.5 and 2 million units, so "Think of figures that move around 20 million electric cars a year will not be crazy".

Despite the skepticism of its contenders, Tesla is already looking for a suitable location for its new Gigafactory, which is expected to be announced later this year. All indications suggest that Canada (Toronto or Quebec) would be the potential places that seem to convince Musk; although it is striking that he is already planning the construction of more plants, when this year he has already inaugurated two big ones (Giga Texas and Giga Berlin).

In order to complete the production plans for the beginning of the next decade, Tesla should be opening another 5 brand-new Gigafactories. A few months ago, among many other rumors about the company, the possibility of opening a second location in China was heard, since the Shanghai factory has clearly given Tesla very good results so far. In addition, Mexico has also been mentioned as a potential location several times in recent months.

A few weeks ago Tesla reached an important milestone: having manufactured 3 million vehicles in its whole lifetime. “Something surprising, since only a decade ago we had produced 3,000 cars”, Musk said, adding that “these figures are only the beginning. We could reach 100 million cars produced in the next decade”.

Tesla hopes to fulfill part of these expectations this same year 2022, with a production figure close to 2 million electric cars; a figure not far from what is actually possible in realistic terms, since in 2021 - with two fewer Gigafactories - they were very close to one million units produced.

Source: businessinsider

All images courtesy of Tesla Inc.

Nico Caballero is the VP of Finance of Cogency Power, specializing in solar energy. He also holds a Diploma in Electric Cars from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and enjoys doing research about Tesla and EV batteries. He can be reached at @NicoTorqueNews on Twitter. Nico covers Tesla and electric vehicle latest happenings at Torque News.