News
Tesla’s ‘skunkworks lab’ for its custom battery cell pilot production line is growing
Tesla’s Battery Day may still be a couple of months away, but hints about the highly-anticipated event’s details are already abounding. With Elon Musk specifically mentioning that the event will be held in Fremont, and that it will include a tour of the company’s pilot battery cell production line, it appears that previous reports, which point to a “skunkworks lab” in the city, were accurate. What’s more, documents filed by the electric car maker in previous months seem to indicate that its mysterious pilot battery cell facility is growing.
Initial leaks and reports about Tesla’s mysterious “skunkworks lab” were posted as early as June 2019, with a CNBC article stating that the facility is located at Kato Road, just a few minutes away from the Fremont factory, where the Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y are built. Citing former and current Tesla employees, the news agency stated that Tesla’s R&D teams were focused on prototyping and designing advanced lithium-ion batteries, as well as new equipment and processes that could usher in the mass production of the next-gen cells.
These batteries are now widely speculated to be the million-mile battery that has been mentioned by the company. The million-mile battery is a significant part of Tesla’s game plan, being the one defining factor that could help electric vehicles achieve price parity with gas powered cars, and allow battery storage devices to last decades when deployed. Amidst the wait for Battery Day, speculations are abounding that Tesla will be conducting a deep dive into its million-mile batteries during the event, similar to how Autonomy Day included an in-depth discussion on the company’s custom Hardware 3.0 computer.
As it turned out, Tesla’s skunkworks lab at Kato Road has been very busy this year. A proposal submitted last March, for example, outlines plans to redevelop the existing site by adding floors to the facility. According to Tesla, the redesigned building will be housing 45 research and development employees and up to 425 manufacturing workers that are spread through several shifts from Monday through Friday. This appears to suggest that the company, as early as March this year, was looking to ramp the battery cell output of its pilot production line.
Interestingly enough, Tesla has also been posting multiple job listings on its Careers page that were specifically focused on battery cell manufacturing. By May 2020, Tesla had posted job listings for Cell Engineers, Production Process Engineers, and Controls Engineers. A look at these listings would show references to a battery cell manufacturing operations, and as luck would have it, the posts listed Fremont, California as their location.
Further documents show that Tesla had also requested to increase its power demand by 6 MW, further hinting that activities in the site are poised to ramp soon. This proposal, based on a response from PG&E that was recently shared online, was approved.
Based on these filings and job listings, it is evident that Tesla’s pilot battery cell manufacturing line has been ramping, or at least is poised to ramp, its operations. This is particularly impressive, considering that the Kato Road facility, which reportedly hosts the company’s skunkworks lab, is a fairly small site, comprising of two buildings that cover 184,880 sq. ft. combined. This means that even in this relatively small location, Tesla has been able to create a pilot line for a new breed of batteries that can change the EV game. This is quite a significant accomplishment, considering that previous battery lines are known to consume a lot of space.
Tesla’s Gigafactory Nevada facility is the perfect example of this. Giga Nevada primarily produces battery cells, and it is poised to be one of the largest buildings in the world by footprint once it’s complete. If Tesla’s pilot battery cell production line in Kato Road is indeed fully functional and ramped, then one can only imagine how much more batteries facilities like Gigafactory Nevada can produce with the company’s next-generation technology.
Tesla’s proposal for an expansion of its Kato Road facility could be accessed below.
Tesla Kato Road Update by Simon Alvarez on Scribd
H/T JPR007
Tesla made a change to the Cybertruck, and nobody noticed. But to be fair, nobody could have, but it was revealed by the program’s lead engineer that it was aimed toward simplifying manufacturing through a minor change in casting.
After the Cybertruck was given a Top Safety Pick+ award by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), for its reputation as the safest pickup on the market, some wondered what had changed about the vehicle.
Tesla makes changes to its vehicles routinely through Over-the-Air software updates, but aesthetic changes are relatively rare. Vehicles go through refreshes every few years, as the Model 3 and Model Y did earlier this year. However, the Cybertruck is one of the vehicles that has not changed much since its launch in late 2023, but it has gone through some minor changes.
Most recently, Wes Morrill, the Cybertruck program’s Lead Engineer, stated that the company had made a minor change to the casting of the all-electric pickup for manufacturing purposes. This change took place in April:
We made a minor change on the casting for manufacturability in April. Our Internal testing shows no difference in crash result but IIHS only officially tested the latest version
— Wes (@wmorrill3) December 17, 2025
The change is among the most subtle that can be made, but it makes a massive difference in manufacturing efficiency, build quality, and scalability.
Morrill revealed Tesla’s internal testing showed no difference in crash testing results performed by the IIHS.
The 2025 Cybertruck received stellar ratings in each of the required testing scenarios and categories. The Top Safety Pick+ award is only given if it excels in rigorous crash tests. This requires ‘Good’ ratings in updated small and moderate overlap front, side, roof, and head restraints.
Additionally, it must have advanced front crash prevention in both day and night. Most importantly, the vehicle must have a ‘Good’ or ‘Acceptable’ headlights standard on all trims, with the “+ ” specifically demanding the toughest new updated moderate overlap test that checks rear-seat passenger protection alongside driver safety.
Tesla has entered an interesting situation with its Full Self-Driving suite in California, as the State’s Department of Motor Vehicles had adopted an order for a suspension of the company’s sales license, but it immediately put it on hold.
The company has been granted a reprieve as the DMV is giving Tesla an opportunity to “remedy the situation.” After the suspension was recommended for 30 days as a penalty, the DMV said it would give Tesla 90 days to allow the company to come into compliance.
The DMV is accusing Tesla of misleading consumers by using words like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving on its advanced driver assistance (ADAS) features.
The State’s DMV Director, Steve Gordon, said that he hoped “Tesla will find a way to get these misleading statements corrected.” However, Tesla responded to the story on Tuesday, stating that this was a “consumer protection” order for the company using the term Autopilot.
It said “not one single customer came forward to say there’s a problem.” It added that “sales in California will continue uninterrupted.”
This was a “consumer protection” order about the use of the term “Autopilot” in a case where not one single customer came forward to say there’s a problem.
Sales in California will continue uninterrupted.
— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) December 17, 2025
Tesla has used the terms Autopilot and Full Self-Driving for years, but has added the term “(Supervised)” to the end of the FSD suite, hoping to remedy some of the potential issues that regulators in various areas might have with the labeling of the program.
It might not be too long before Tesla stops catching flak for using the Full Self-Driving name to describe its platform.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
The Robotaxi suite has continued to improve, and this week, vehicles were spotted in Austin without any occupants. CEO Elon Musk would later confirm that Tesla had started testing driverless rides in Austin, hoping to launch rides without any supervision by the end of the year.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) closed at an all-time high on Tuesday, jumping over 3 percent during the day and finishing at $489.88.
The price beats the previous record close, which was $479.86.
Shares have had a crazy year, dipping more than 40 percent from the start of the year. The stock then started to recover once again around late April, when its price started to climb back up from the low $200 level.
This week, Tesla started to climb toward its highest levels ever, as it was revealed on Sunday that the company was testing driverless Robotaxis in Austin. The spike in value pushed the company’s valuation to $1.63 trillion.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
It is the seventh-most valuable company on the market currently, trailing Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.
Shares closed up $14.57 today, up over 3 percent.
The stock has gone through a lot this year, as previously mentioned. Shares tumbled in Q1 due to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which pulled his attention away from his companies and left a major overhang on their valuations.
However, things started to rebound halfway through the year, and as the government started to phase out the $7,500 tax credit, demand spiked as consumers tried to take advantage of it.
Q3 deliveries were the highest in company history, and Tesla responded to the loss of the tax credit with the launch of the Model 3 and Model Y Standard.
Additionally, analysts have announced high expectations this week for the company on Wall Street as Robotaxi continues to be the focus. With autonomy within Tesla’s sights, things are moving in the direction of Robotaxi being a major catalyst for growth on the Street in the coming year.
Tesla made a change to the Cybertruck and nobody noticed
Tesla enters interesting situation with Full Self-Driving in California
