Tesla starts Megapack 3 production with 28% more energy per unit

Tesla has started building its next-generation grid battery, the Megapack 3, at a new factory in Brookshire, Texas. The plant went from groundbreaking to production in 16 months and can build 50 GWh of these batteries a year. Each Megapack 3 unit holds about 5 MWh of energy, roughly 28% more than the previous version, thanks to bigger battery cells packed into the same size box. Tesla also cut the number of plumbing connections in the cooling system by 78%, which should mean fewer failure points and less assembly work.

The bigger change is something called the Megablock, which bundles up to four Megapack 3 units with the transformer and switchgear already wired together at the factory. Normally that wiring gets done on-site, which is slow and costly. Tesla says this lets a battery farm go up about 23% faster than before, with a full gigawatt-hour installed in 20 business days. This matters because it's aimed at utilities and data centers buying huge amounts of storage, not at homeowners directly.

None of this involves a home product, but it points to where battery costs and technology are headed. Tesla notes rising tariffs on imported battery cells are squeezing its margins on this business, a cost pressure that can ripple into pricing across the broader battery and solar market, including home batteries. If you're weighing solar or battery storage for your own house, it's worth keeping an eye on how tariffs and battery costs shift over the coming months, since they affect equipment prices industry-wide.