4 ms·

Look for Elon Musk to Unveil a New Battery That Will Shake the EV Market

14 points by spenrose 6y ago

rad_gruchalski 6y ago
I’m confused after reading the article. Is the expectation there to see a new battery or for Musk to tell the world about a plan for such cheap batteries.
- spenrose 6y ago
  Both
  - NotSammyHagar 6y ago
    Tesla battery pack (not just battery) prices have been creeping down forever, in part because they are the only company doing ev mass manufacturing in the west (lots of sizable chinese ev companies, supposedly they aren't as efficient as tesla but that's surprising if really true). Separately tesla has been working on the next gen of batteries for several years, has bought several startups and even paid for the research of a particularly important battery research team. Their existing batteries for the S are made by panasonic, have their own chemistry, different than other panasonic batteries. The 3 and Y have gen-2 batteries that are different (more efficient in energy per unit volume). The half-gen new S with longer range came from putting the newer motors from the 3 into the S. They can get another bump by using the 3&y batteries, but we'll see if these 3rd gen batteries will be ready for production. Tesla is way ahead on many many dimensions of all the legacy makers (efficiency, design, horiz integration, battery supply, superchargers). This is separate from their stock price being way too high. I always thought the other car companies would do a better job of competing with them. But the industry standard design and implementation scheme in the auto industry where car makers assemble many different pieces together designed and made by 3rd parties like bosch etc are making it hard (like the difficulty of vw with software problems with their "electronics assembled from many different companies" id3 hardware platform. I'm sure vw will eventually work it out. But the vertical integration of tesla really helps them. This got off the subject....

4 ms·

Look for Elon Musk to Unveil a New Battery That Will Shake the EV Market

14 points by spenrose 6y ago

rad_gruchalski 6y ago
I’m confused after reading the article. Is the expectation there to see a new battery or for Musk to tell the world about a plan for such cheap batteries.
- spenrose 6y ago
  Both
  - NotSammyHagar 6y ago
    Tesla battery pack (not just battery) prices have been creeping down forever, in part because they are the only company doing ev mass manufacturing in the west (lots of sizable chinese ev companies, supposedly they aren't as efficient as tesla but that's surprising if really true). Separately tesla has been working on the next gen of batteries for several years, has bought several startups and even paid for the research of a particularly important battery research team. Their existing batteries for the S are made by panasonic, have their own chemistry, different than other panasonic batteries. The 3 and Y have gen-2 batteries that are different (more efficient in energy per unit volume). The half-gen new S with longer range came from putting the newer motors from the 3 into the S. They can get another bump by using the 3&y batteries, but we'll see if these 3rd gen batteries will be ready for production. Tesla is way ahead on many many dimensions of all the legacy makers (efficiency, design, horiz integration, battery supply, superchargers). This is separate from their stock price being way too high. I always thought the other car companies would do a better job of competing with them. But the industry standard design and implementation scheme in the auto industry where car makers assemble many different pieces together designed and made by 3rd parties like bosch etc are making it hard (like the difficulty of vw with software problems with their "electronics assembled from many different companies" id3 hardware platform. I'm sure vw will eventually work it out. But the vertical integration of tesla really helps them. This got off the subject....