Tesla’s energy storage plant in Shanghai’s Lin-gang Special Area commenced operation on Tuesday, as the assembly line started the production of the first Megapack unit.

The Megapack, which is an advanced battery system designed for large-scale energy projects, can store more than 3,900 kilowatt-hours of electricity in a single unit. This capacity can sustain a 39,000-kilometre drive for a Tesla Model 3 rear-wheel drive version.

Covering about 200,000 square meters, the new energy storage project attracts a total investment of 1.45 billion yuan (RM890 million). Up to 10,000 Megapack units are scheduled to be produced here annually.

As Tesla’s first energy storage gigafactory outside the United States, the new Lin-gang plant only took nine months from ground-breaking, which took place in May 2024, to official operation. This was three months faster than when Tesla saw its EV gigafactory in Lin-gang go into operation in January 2020, marked by the production of the first car.

Tesla’s gigafactory for EV production in Lin-gang, which is also the first plant of its kind that the US EV maker has built overseas, was the largest foreign-invested manufacturing project in Shanghai with a total investment of 50 billion yuan.