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I just finished the Elon Musk biography — there's a good discussion about how Tesla was founded on the premise that the market did not yet recognize how cheap l
by austinl 10y ago
I just finished the Elon Musk biography — there's a good discussion about how Tesla was founded on the premise that the market did not yet recognize how cheap lithium ion batteries had become.
The original prototypes involved connecting hundreds of small batteries in parallel.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22535480-elon-musk https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22535480-elon-musk
- revelation 10y agoThe production cars are still hundreds of small batteries in parallel. I wonder if with Model 3 they have the scale to move away from the standard form factors.
- bb611 10y agoYup, the current battery uses thousands of 18650s, but they developed a more 'economically efficient' 2170 cell for the model 3 - https://qz.com/879121/teslas-tsla-cheaper-more-powerful-2170-battery-cell-is-the-perfect-embodiment-of-its-factory-model/ https://qz.com/879121/teslas-tsla-cheaper-more-powerful-2170...
- petra 10y ago>> the market did not yet recognize how cheap lithium ion batteries had become. How did that happened in the age of the internet ? and are there still a lot of such technological "secrets" ?
- whiskers08xmt 10y agoHappens all the time. Kind of how smartphones drove down the prices of components useful for VR goggles, and made them a feasible product.
- comicjk 10y ago"Secret" is not the right concept. It's not that people didn't know the price, it's that they didn't see the implications of the price for opening a new market. That kind of insight takes imagination as well as knowledge.
- makomk 10y agoManufacturers in this industry don't exactly publish price lists.