Tesla said it will invest almost $250 million to expand 4680 battery cell production at Gigafactory Berlin, lifting the site’s annual capacity target to 18 gigawatt-hours from the 8 GWh plan it set earlier. And the company said the larger battery operation is expected to employ more than 1,500 workers at the Grünheide factory near Berlin.
This is a major increase in scale for Tesla’s Germany battery program. Reports on the plan said total spending on the Berlin cell project is now nearing €1 billion, or about $1.2 billion, after the new investment was added. And Tesla has already started recruiting for battery-related jobs as it builds out the next phase of the site.
The company expects production at the expanded cell facility to begin in the first half of 2027. Yet the project is about more than a start date, since Tesla wants the Berlin plant to make battery cells at much higher volume inside Europe instead of relying as heavily on imported supply.
What the new capacity can support
At 18 GWh, the factory could make enough battery cells for roughly 250,000 to 350,000 vehicles a year, with the final number tied to battery pack size. And that gives Tesla a much larger local base for one of the most expensive parts of an electric vehicle. Analysts say battery production close to vehicle assembly can help lower logistics costs and reduce supply delays, which has been a long-running goal for major EV makers in Europe.
Tesla’s earlier plan for Berlin called for local battery and vehicle production from the same site starting in 2027. So the new spending does not change the direction of travel, but it does raise the scale in a clear way.
Factory growth in Grünheide
The battery announcement came just after Giga Berlin passed 750,000 vehicles built since the plant opened in March 2022. And factory leadership has said the site is now pushing for its first one million vehicles, with a 20% increase in production planned to help reach that mark. The plant currently builds the Model Y, which remains Tesla’s main volume product in Europe.
That timing gives the battery plan extra weight. Tesla is not just adding capacity on paper, and it is adding it at a factory that has already become a central piece of the company’s European manufacturing footprint.
The move comes as battery-electric vehicle demand in Europe has been rising this year. In the first quarter of 2026, battery-electric cars accounted for 19.4% of new car registrations in the European Union, up from 15.2% a year earlier. And Germany recorded 41.3% growth in battery-electric registrations over the same period, which gives Tesla a stronger business case for making more cells closer to its regional customers. If the project stays on schedule, Giga Berlin will have a much larger role in Tesla’s battery and vehicle plans by 2027.
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