Tesla Battery Day

[Irace86.2.0]

This is a little late, but it is worth watching. I think it shows how far ahead Tesla is from their competitors. I would be surprised if VW, Toyota or any other manufacture is working through these issues at the level and pace that Tesla is making headwind.

[soundman98]

highlights:

*going to stop using panasonic battery cells and moving cell production in-house

*shorter fatter battery cells, supposed to improve all battery-stuff. more capacity, higher discharge current

*more compact battery unit

*$140k sub 9sec 1/4 mi model s

*$25k model 'coming soon'

my understanding with the exception of the super-crazy model s, is that these were all things that have been anticipated or are goals of tesla since their inception.

[Irace86.2.0]

They said they wouldn't stop getting batteries from Panasonic or other suppliers, specifically because they want to scale production as fast as possible.

Pretty bold statement that the Plaid Model S will be the fastest production car of any type around all tracks, but it is possible, and it will definitely happen with the new Roadster. They said the car did it in 1:30.3, which as you can see, is a few seconds off from the Senna, and they believe they could get the car to go three seconds faster. Regardless, it will likely not be the fastest at every track, nor will it stay there for very long like all things.

I think the bigger thing than a $25k car could be the perspective that Tesla is much more profitable than it is, and/or that the price of all cars will be cheaper. A $25k with good range and power is the hurdle that I think they will reach in 3-5 years. Other car companies will likely not be able to match the figures, so either power or range will likely be compromised.

I think the most interesting thing was how they are improving each major component and process of the battery and car in order to reduce the cost per kW, while greatly scaling production. This is something I don't think anyone is doing. Like, yeah, a battery that is smaller, lighter and/or the same size and is more powerful and gets better range is great, but to make those things happen at such a reduced cost and with such a huge reduction in manufacturing too is awesome. They will be dramatically reducing the true carbon footprint of each vehicle, while greatly scaling the production capacity of their factories. Where they were going to need hundreds of gigafactories, they might need only dozens. That and the fact that they will be recycling their batteries themselves is all promising.

The ethos of the company from its inception hasn't changed, but it was clear from the graph they showed that battery cost has started to plateau, and the Gigafactory wasn't enough at scaling down the costs through efficiencies of volume, so this was interesting to see how they were going to make the next advancements. Scaling down the supply lines is really interesting and industry disrupting.

I think people were hoping for something like 50 miles of more range, or 200 more horsepower, or million mile battery or whatever, but they didn't throw out figures. Part of that is because they have already made a car and battery that can perform well, that can charge fast, that can last a long time and that has great range. By every metric, those numbers don't need to greatly improve. Mostly what needs to improve is the cost to manufacture the battery and the speed at which they can ramp up production for cars and grid storage. Like those numbers just did improve, but what is more important is that they have found a path towards making their end goal a possibility in a feasible amount of time.