There’s A Strong Chance They Will Debut As Part Of Structural Battery Packs In Model Ys Built In Austin And Berlin
One of the important takeaways from Teslas recent third quarter earnings call was an announcement that the 4680 cell would debut in a production vehicle in 2022. They didnt specify which model it will be used in, but based on previous reports and the information that weve been gathering for months on this new type of cell, as well as its inclusion into a structural battery pack, we can draw some conclusions.
During the earnings call, Drew Baglino, the SVP of Tesla Powertrain and Energy Engineering, announced that development and testing on the 4680 cells had gone well and that the company had ramped up the production for these new cells in order to use them for testing purposes, as well as test the manufacturing process itself – Tesla says that so far its testing of the cells are living up to expectations.
Panasonic To Start Tesla 4680 Cell Production In March Of 2024 Report Says
Tesla makes big claims about the 4680, including reduced production costs and up to 16% more range.
Kyle Hyatt
News & Features Editor
Kyle Hyatt hails originally from the Pacfic Northwest, but has called Los Angeles home for the past decade. He’s had a lifelong obsession with cars and motorcycles , and covers them for CNET Cars as its news & features editor.
Tesla has made a big deal out of its new 4680 battery cell design, claiming it will both increase the range of its vehicles and reduce the cost-per-kilowatt of its battery packs. It’s been working on finalizing the design and production process for these new cells at a pilot plant in California, but now, according to a report published on Monday by Reuters, there’s a production start date in sight.
Only, it isn’t Tesla’s 4680 start date that we now know. Instead, it’s Panasonic’s. Panasonic has long been Tesla’s battery production partner of choice, and the Japanese giant will kick off its 4680 production in March of 2024. Tesla is already building Model Ys at its Austin, Texas plant with 4680s from its pilot plant.
Panasonic is already cranking out cells like crazy for Tesla and other partners, so this move into 4680 production will necessitate an expansion of its facilities. The company is already planning on adding two new production lines to its Wakayama factory to accommodate.
We reached out to Panasonic for comment but didn’t hear back in time for publication.
Tesla Model Y With 4680 Battery Cells Already Circulating In The Us
After the celebration of the Cyber Rodeo last Thursday, April 7, Tesla already began delivering the first Model Y units made at the Austin plant in Texas. These are the first electric cars to implement the new 4680 battery cells presented on Battery Day . The first owners are – as on other occasions – Tesla employees themselves, usually the first to receive the latest news from the manufacturer as well.
The 4680 cells are six times more powerful and have an energy capacity five times higher than current cells its larger size multiplies by more than five the volume of active material it can hold. By eliminating the connectors that join each electrode to the battery casing, performance is increased to achieve 16% more range that adds to the fact that production costs are also greatly reduced.
The cells have the capacity to create a structural battery pack in such a way that, located on the floor of the vehicle, form part of the rigid structure itself, which in turn allows for the reduction of reinforcement parts by the way reducing the total weight on one hand, and production costs on the other. With Tesla’s new approach, the platform that includes the battery is attached to the body as part of the car’s structure.
Tesla employee confirms made in Texas Model Y delivery with 4680 battery cells
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When Is The Tesla Battery Revolution Really Coming
At the time of Teslas last Battery Day in September last year, two announcements caught peoples attention. The biggest fuss was made about the hint that Tesla would have a $25,000 car in just a few years time. But the more immediate news was the announcement of a new cell type called the 4680, due in volume in 2021. This cell is more than twice the diameter of the 2170-type currently used in most Tesla cars, and 10mm longer. Musk claimed it would offer Tesla cars 16% more range, deliver six times the power, and cost 14% less per kWh. However, the new technology has been having problems.
Tesla will be utilising a shingled design to enable larger, higher-capacity battery cells.
Tesla
At the Battery Day in September 2020, Musk claimed that by September 2021 Tesla would hit around 10GWh capacity producing the new cells. However, in 2020 the production yield was a paltry 20%. That is not so surprising, because this is not just a switch to a larger cell with the same technology. The new cell is tabless, it is meant to involve dry electrode production that drastically reduces the number of stages in manufacturing, as well as using different materials for the anodes and cathodes.
All of Tesla’s enhancements put together would produce a massive 56% reduction in battery costs per … kWh.
Tesla
The much-anticipated $25,000 Tesla relies on the 4680 battery cell to achieve its low price.
Tesla
Improved Chemistry Aka Silicon Is Awesome
The new cells are not the result of a single change to the size of the cells. Much like the numerous rewrites of Tesla Autopilot over the years, the 4680 cells represent a fundamental rewrite of the history of battery cells at Tesla.
Silicon is used in Teslas batteries today, but its physical properties make it a bit of a challenging element to use at higher volumes. The challenge with silicon is that it expands 4× when charged with lithium, Baglino said. Silicon is the most abundant element in the earths crust after oxygen, making it a lower-cost, easy-to-acquire commodity. In fact, sand is just silicon dioxide.
To work around silicons rough edges, Tesla perhaps unsurprisingly started with raw silicon. Right off the bat, that lowers the cost of the silicon, and Tesla simply built a new chemistry to complement it. Stabilize the surface with an elastic ion-conducting polymer coating thats applied through a very scalable approach, Baglino said.
Thats far simpler than current processes and allows for a higher percentage of silicon to be used in the cells. The result is a cheaper cell that also boasts higher capacity. We can increase the range of our vehicles an additional 20%, Baglino said. The icing on the cake is that the cells are also cheaper. Thats another 5% reduction at the battery pack level.
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Everything You Need To Know About Teslas New 4680 Battery Cell
Tesla didnt hold back at Battery Day, announcing a new tabless 4680 cell form factor, among many other things.
Tesla didnt hold back at Battery Day, announcing a new tabless 4680 cell form factor, among many other things. The new form factor eliminates the tabs, increases energy density, maintains similar thermal characteristics of smaller cells, improves the power-to-weight ratio, streamlines manufacturing, and lowers cost.
Said another way, the new Tesla 4680 cell is the equivalent of bringing a potato gun to a french fry fight. Lets walk through each of the improvements the new form factor brings to the table.
Whats The Tesla Model Y Redesign Price
Pricing is unconfirmed at this time.
The current pricing shows how Tesla is targeting a lower end of the market than its Model X SUV but still costs a pretty penny.
- At the moment, the Tesla Model Y Long Range is available for $53,990 before savings. This offers an EPA-estimated 326 miles of range, a top speed of 135 mph, and a 0 to 60 mph acceleration time of 4.8 seconds.
- The Tesla Model Y Performance is available for $60,990 before savings. This has an EPA-estimated range of 303 miles, a top speed of 155 mph, and a 0 to 60 mph acceleration time of 3.5 seconds.
Could European buyers see a further price drop once the Giga Berlin factory opens? While Tesla operates an assembly plant in the Netherlands, this will be the first time that Tesla has manufactured cars in Europe itself.
A price drop for Europe is possible, especially as Tesla is opening the factory to reduce complexity in production. Musks stated goal is to make cars closer to buyers to make them easier to build and deliver.
Days before Tesla handed over the first China-made Model 3 vehicles at its new Shanghai facility in January 2020, it reduced the starting price of China-made Model 3 cars by nine percent. The pre-subsidy price dropped from 355,800 yuan to 323,800 yuan .
Whether Tesla makes a similar move for Europe remains to be seen.
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Tesla Is Still Having Issues Ramping Up 4680 Battery Cell Production Report Says
Tesla is still having some issues in ramping up production of its new 4680 battery cell and especially its dry-coating technology, according to an interesting albeit strange new report.
Reuters is out today with a new report on Teslas effort to ramp up production of its 4680 battery cell.
Its a bit difficult to determine the level of credibility of the report because Reuters is being a bit vague about its sources, only saying that it talked to 12 battery experts with some of them having close ties to Tesla:
Among the 12 battery experts Reuters spoke with, nine have close ties to Tesla and three of the nine have examined Teslas new and old battery technology inside and out through teardowns.
According to those experts, Tesla is still having issues ramping up its 4680 battery cell production, and the dry-coating technology is still an important bottleneck.
Tesla Unveiled The 4680 Form Factor Cell At The Company’s Battery Day Last Fall It Seems Tesla Is Moving Rapidly
This article comes to us courtesy of EVANNEX, which makes and sells aftermarket Tesla accessories. The opinions expressed therein are not necessarily our own at InsideEVs, nor have we been paid by EVANNEX to publish these articles. We find the company’s perspective as an aftermarket supplier of Tesla accessories interesting and are happy to share its content free of charge. Enjoy!
Posted on EVANNEX on January 12, 2021 by Iqtidar Ali
Tesla recently provided a sneak preview of its 4680 cell production planned for Gigafactory Berlin in the company’s latest recruitment video on . It reveals several small details of the 4680 production process that might be of interest to competing automakers in addition to potential employees.
Above: Tesla 4680 cell production line concept preview to be implemented at Gigafactory Berlin
Tesla unveiled the 4680 form factor cell at the company’s Battery Day last fall. It turns out the company is already producing these cells at their pilot production plant near its Fremont factory. According to Elon Musks presentation during Battery Day, Tesla is ramping up its 4680 pilot production to 10 GWh annually. Actual production plants will be more in the order of 200 GWh/year, maybe more, he said.
Tesla wrote in the , “At Tesla, we build cars and factories from the ground up. Now we do the same for batteries.”
A Reddit user who is himself a cell chemistry engineer remarked on what he saw in the video in his :
Read More About Tesla’s 4680 Cells:
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Tesla Model Y Redesign: Price Release Date Specs And Battery Range For The 2021 Model
Tesla’s compact SUV, aimed at the budget market, is getting some changes. Here’s what’s in store.
The Tesla Model Y is getting a new release, and it could bring the car to more buyers than ever before.
During last months second-quarter 2021 earnings call, CEO Elon Musk confirmed that a new design of the compact SUV would reach consumers later this year. The release is the biggest change to the Model Y since it first hit roads in March 2020.
The car represents part of Teslas strategy to bring electric vehicles to the mass market. This three-part plan, first outlined in 2016, started with the Model 3 compact sedan in 2017. It continued with the Model Y, and its set to conclude with the Cybertruck likely in 2022. All three vehicles are much cheaper than their Model S and Model X predecessors, and Tesla is producing them faster.
Want to know more about Musks plans for the Cybertruck, the state of battery production at Tesla, and what comes next? Read the full transcript for Teslas second-quarter earnings call, only in MUSK READS+.
In 2018, Musk explained that demand for the Model Y could be maybe 50 percent higher than Model 3, could be even double, as the midsize SUV is the worlds best-selling class of vehicle. With that in mind, heres everything you need to know about the new Tesla Model Y, from release date and price to new features and upgraded specs.
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During Tesla’s Battery Day 2020, Drew Baglino, SVP Powertrain and Energy Engineering, and Elon Musk, CEO, introduced the 4680 battery.
On July 26, in a rare glimpse into progress on his company’s purported game-changer battery, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was in true Muskian form, raising hopes and tempering expectations in one cryptic swoop:
We have successfully validated performance and lifetime of our 4680 cells produced at our Kato facility in California. We are nearing the end of manufacturing validation at Kato: field quality and yield are at viable levels and our focus is now on improving the 10% of manufacturing processes that currently bottleneck production output. While substantial progress has been made, we still have work ahead of us before we can achieve volume production. Internal crash testing of our structural pack architecture with a single-piece front casting has been successful.
Any whisper of production bottlenecks at Tesla inevitably recalls the Model 3’s troubled launch in 2017 and 2018, the one that had Musk sleeping in his office. Yet that make-or-break sedan ultimately made Tesla the world leader in EVs, and one of its most-valued companies.
“For the cell itself, no question, it will kick the daylights out of everybody,” Munro says.
The 4680 could fuel Musk’s dreams to build millions of EVs a year around the world
“It’s basically a giant box without dividers,” Munro says.
Tesla
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Tesla Utilizes 3rd Party Technology
According to a Medium article, Tesla demonstrated that it is not committed to its 4680. It wants to make its batteries not only so it can use cutting-edge technology. It is also because it allows them to earn higher margins than competitors through the sale of the car and its battery pack. So, if Elon’s future plans for Tesla necessitated this extra cash, he couldn’t use the M3P and would instead concentrate on ramping up 4680 production.
Tesla Is Making Model Y At Giga Texas With The Structural Battery And 4680 Cells Confirms Elon Musk
Tesla, Inc. released its Q4 2021 and 2021 yearly earnings reports yesterday. The automaker conducted the quarterly earnings call and Q& A webcast yesterday as well. Surprisingly and interestingly, Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined the call which he has not been attending for a couple of previous quarters .
Since this was a historic year at Tesla in terms of vehicle production and deliveries, everyone expected great financial results and profits. Musk and his Tesla did not disappoint the investors and enthusiasts who have aligned their mission with the companys vision of sustainable energy and transport.
As we all know, Elon Musk makes some good revelations during these calls for sure, we will be covering them one by one but at this time we will talk only about Model Y in relation to Giga Texas and Giga Berlin.
Were making quite a few cars in Giga Texas and Berlin, so, in Texas, we are building Model Ys with the structural battery pack and the 4680 cells. And we will start delivering after the final certification of the vehicle which should be fairly soon, Musk made some confirmations during his opening remarks of the Q4 2021 Earnings Call.
For Giga Berlin, Tesla had already confirmed the structural pack and 4680 cells at the Giga Fest event held at the Berlin factory. In addition to this, these Model Ys will have both the front and rear underbody mega castings as well.
Stay tuned for constant Tesla updates, follow us on: | Flipboard | RSS .
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Tesla Is Now Offering The Model Y With New ‘4680’ Battery Cells
Tesla’s wait times for the Model Y have gotten ridiculous. The standard Model Y Long Range trim with the 19-inch wheels has an estimated delivery time between February and May 2023. For consumers that place an order for that configuration now, they’re looking at waiting roughly a year before their SUV actually gets delivered. That’s absolutely bonkers. There’s some good news for current reservation holders that live near Tesla’s new Gigafactory in Texas, as the automaker has come out with a new Tesla Y configuration with much quicker delivery times.
New Model Y Introduced
According to Inside EVs, an email has started to make the rounds on social media about a new Model Y trim. The email was sent out to current Model Y reservation holders that live near Tesla’s Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. The email offers current reservation holders in the area with the opportunity to trade their current reservations with a new trim. Wait times for the new trim are a few weeks.
“You have the opportunity to experience our latest configuration and take delivery within weeks,” reads the email. “Select Model Y All-Wheel Drive and experience one of the first vehicles built at Gigafactory Texas and currently only available in the area. Go anywhere with up to 279 miles on a single charge and accelerate from 0-60 mph in as little as 5.0 seconds.”
How The New Model Y Compares