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7 key lessons from Tesla Battery Day

Top 7 Lessons from Tesla Battery Day

Tesla Battery Day has just come to an end and the company has announced impressive performance and planned changes. Tesla is proving once again that they are setting the tone for a sustainable future, not just for the car industry.

The biggest message at the event was that “Tera” is the new “Giga” (kilo = 1’000, mega = 1’000 kilo, giga = 1’000 mega, tera = 1’000 giga). Achieving a future in which all vehicles are zero-emission requires an increase in the production of batteries and a reduction in their price.

Tesla, founded in 2003. and delivered its first vehicle only 12 years ago, is now setting the tone for the auto industry and beyond. But car manufacturing is not the only thing Tesla does. Ilon Mask, Tesla’s CEO, has repeatedly recalled that Tesla is also a manufacturer of software, batteries, solar panels and many different complex systems with a view to a sustainable future.

Battery price forecast

New batteries will be significantly cheaper

Currently, the main barrier to the adoption of mass electric cars and energy storage systems is the price of batteries (and production capacity). Although battery prices over the past 10 years have been dropped very significantlyIn recent years, this has not happened so fast. Ilon even said they were stagnant. That’s why Tesla has come up with a solution that will reduce the price of batteries by more than 50% in the coming years.

Tesla Battery Day
Tesla battery shape factor efficiency curve

This will be achieved through a complex set of processes. The first of the influencing factors presented is the battery cells themselves. Tesla will develop a new battery shape factor. If so far Tesla used cylindrical battery cells with a shape of 1865 (18 mm in diameter and 65 mm in height) and 2170, then the new batteries will be 4680 and with many internal changes. Previously, the disadvantage of thicker batteries was heating, but Tesla solved this by moving the anode to another location and other processes.

Tesla Battery Day
Tesla 4680 battery

The new form factor enables 5x more power capacity, 6x more power capacity and 16% mileage gain compared to previous batteries, taking up the same amount of space. Using it will achieve 14% price gain.

Tesla will produce the batteries itself

Tesla will start producing battery cells itself (so far its partners). If until now the production process used wet production, which requires significant drying equipment (several hundred meters long), now Tesla will switch to the dry assembly process, which is still in the prototype stage.

Tesla Battery Day
Tesla 4680 battery cross section

The dry assembly process is more efficient and uses significantly cheaper technologies, but is still not fully developed. Compared to wet production, the space required for production is 10x less and the production process is 10x more efficient (consumes less energy). At the same time, Tesla has made putting battery paths together in battery packs more efficient – 7x faster than before.

Over time, all car manufacturers will have an electric car that can travel far. Over time, all cars will be able to drive autonomously. But not all manufacturers will be brilliant in production. Tesla will be head and shoulders superior to the rest. That is our goal.

Ilon Mask, Chairman of the Board, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors

The above is and will be achieved, because Tesla is one of the few companies for which the whole process is vertically integrated. Road production was one of the few processes where the company relied on other manufacturers (Panasonic, Catlus). By managing the whole process, it can be greatly optimized.

Battery production will only increase

Tesla produces few batteries compared to future plans. Until 2022 The California company plans to produce 100 GWh of energy per year, but by 2030. to achieve that 3 TWh / year is produced. If at the expense of Tesla Model 3 units, then in 2030. Tesla will produce enough batteries to fit 40 million Tesla Model 3 Long Range batteries.

With the new production process will be achieved 18% price savings. These two improvements alone will deliver 32% price drop.

Without cobalt and without excess water

Tesla has long been committed to cobalt-free batteries. They already use the smallest amount of cobalt in their cells when it comes to NCA batteries, but so far have not got rid of it at all for safety reasons.

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