Tesla’s Shanghai Megapack energy storage plant Photo: CFP

US electric car producer Tesla's Shanghai Megapack energy storage plant has begun trial production and is expected to start mass production early next year, the company said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Tuesday. The battery factory marks the company's first energy storage system factory outside the US to manufacture its energy storage batteries known as Megapacks, and is also another major investment for Tesla in China following the inauguration of its Shanghai Gigafactory in 2019.

The mega battery plant broke ground in May and successfully passed its completion inspection on December 27, meaning that it only took seven months from groundbreaking to completion, setting a new record of "Tesla speed," the statement said. 

The plant has a planned output of 10,000 units of commercial Megapack energy storage batteries annually and a designed storage capacity of nearly 40 gigawatt-hours. The battery products will be supplied to the global market, according to a Shanghai Observer report. 

Energy storage has become an important profit growth driver for Tesla. According to Tesla's third-quarter 2024 financial report, revenue from the energy generation and storage business reached $2.376 billion, a year-on-year increase of 52.4 percent. The gross profit margin for the energy storage business reached 30.5 percent setting a historical high.

The Shanghai Gigafactory has become an important global export hub and manufacturing base for Tesla, shipping its products to a number of overseas markets including Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Australia to date, according to another report by the Shanghai Observer. 

Construction of the Shanghai Gigafactory began in January 2019, and the first batch of vehicles produced by the factory was delivered in December 2019, less than one year after groundbreaking, the report said. In September 2024, Tesla announced that it has shipped its 1 millionth made-in-China vehicle from its Shanghai plant.