Tesla Gigaberlin Factory in 2025

A narrated video tour of Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg (often called Giga Berlin) explores the facility’s manufacturing processes, interviews employees, and highlights its efficiency and sustainability.

The tour emphasizes Tesla’s vertical integration, continuous iteration (no fixed model years), automation balanced with human oversight, and a multinational workforce. Production focuses on the Model Y, with ~1,000 units per day at the time of filming.

The tour begins in the casting area, described as producing Europe’s largest cast part via die-casting: the rear underbody.

Raw aluminum ingots/blanks are melted at 700°C and injected into molds using the world’s largest die-casting machine (6,000 tons of pressure). The liquid aluminum is pressed and cooled rapidly.

Transition to the stamping section, where all 15 exterior body parts (hood, doors, tailgate, fenders, side panels) are formed from aluminum and steel sheets in 4–5 steps.

Uses 2,500 tons of pressure. One to two parts produced every ~4 seconds.

Tool inserts change quickly for different parts, enabling flexibility.

Body and White (BIW) Assembly

Tesla Employee Áine explains BIW. Stamping and casting parts are assembled using glue, welding, and bolting into sub-assemblies (front end, rear end, center underbody).

Individual closures (doors, liftgate, hood) are built separately and attached before painting for efficiency.

Off the main line, side areas feed components. Robots assemble doors from 20–30 parts each.

Gigacasting reduces stamping needs and robot count (from ~100 to 5 for rear underbody). Machined post-casting for bolt holes/seat mounts. Most body bolting attaches to this underbody.

Efficiency: Berlin overtook Shanghai as Tesla’s most efficient factory. There is friendly competition which drives improvements. Line speed ~60 seconds per car and is capable of 39 seconds. ~1,400 weld points per car (60m of glue, 130+ self-piercing rivets via yellow SPR guns).

Continuous evolution: No model years; iterations every few months improve the car via software/OTA updates.

Large maintenance teams support robots/weld guns; data analysis for efficiencies. Automation creates support roles.

Welding robots, SPR in background; bodies move to closure line.

Paint Shop

Claimed as the world’s most advanced, enabling unique color depth/complexity (up to 7 layers for Dark Cherry Red; developed Quicksilver here).

Two fully automated lines with 150+ robots; robots open doors, tailgates, frunk for painting.

Manual cleaning of robots occurs. Humans still essential.

Single-line process reduces bakes.

Plastics and Vertical Integration

In-house molding/painting of plastics (bumpers, seats) for supply chain control.

Tesla prioritizes in-house if quality matches/exceeds suppliers.

Drive Units and General Assembly (GA)

Marriage station: Powertrain (battery pack in middle, 1–2 drive units for RWD/AWD) joins body. Rotates to match line flow.

Battery engineering (modules, penthouse electronics at rear seat). Focuses on internals, not cells/enclosures. Leads 4680 module work.

GA overview: ~1,000 employees/shift. 7 main lines + secondaries. Installs wheels, seats, doors, windows. Bodies connect to powertrain (battery, axles, motors).

Light Tunnel, Sustainability, and Factory Overview

Famous light tunnel inspects vehicles.

Workforce: 11,000 employees from 150 nations. Diverse backgrounds, no auto experience needed.

Sustainability: 100% renewable electricity (20% from on-site 9MW PV on buildings/parking). 1.88 m³ water/vehicle (33% below industry average). Closed-loop recycling (100% battery wastewater).

2023 used 456,953 m³ (vs. 1.4M allowance).

Produces hundreds of thousands of Model Ys, millions of cells annually.