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Yawn. Another battery breakthrough with x10 price... Far more interesting is this [1] > china-is-building-one-battery-gigafactory-a-week > There are 136 of t

Yawn. Another battery breakthrough with x10 price... Far more interesting is this [1] > china-is-building-one-battery-gigafactory-a-week > There are 136 of these super-sized EV battery plants in operation or being planned: 101 in China and 8 in the USA. [1] https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/membership/china-is-building-one-battery-gigafactory-a-week-the-us-one-every-four-months-simon-moores/ https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/membership/china-is-buildi... Tesla of course is a premium brand with pricing power. But can Tesla sustain any sort of real battery manufacturing advantage over China?

algo_trader 6y ago
Separate submission https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23681782 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23681782
anoncareer0212 6y ago
Unfortunately, they can't :/ they committed to using locally made batteries in China, still are sourcing from Panasonic for Fremont, and never got the New York Gigafactory running, even after outsourcing it to Panasonic. The million mile battery Musk has been teasing is from CATL
scythe 6y ago
>But can Tesla sustain any sort of real battery manufacturing advantage over China? We think a lot about developing better car batteries, but car batteries are fine -- if the world had to live with 300-mile ranges, it would probably not be the end of prosperity. What we need are grid batteries, which are the only realistic replacement for fossil fuel power plants -- sorry, nuclear alone, while a valuable part of a future grid, won't handle variable loads. Grid batteries are a commodity. By contrast these increasingly efficient car batteries are basically a luxury product. Unfortunately capitalism won't normally allocate many resources towards something with low profit margins, but the Chinese government will. Whether or not Tesla can keep up with China at making toys, it is no remedy for the lack of action by our own governments to provide technologies Tesla can't make money off of.
- NotSammyHagar 6y ago
  tesla is doing great making their own batteries with panasonic, that's a key reason they got this far. their new batteries coming in the us will cement their leadership. It's mass high quality batteries that keeps them ahead.
airstrike 6y ago
> Yawn. Another battery breakthrough with x10 price... Who said anything about price? This is an R&D milestone at best, not a consumer product as the article very clearly states both in the subtitle and in the body of the article. > Far more interesting is this [1] Great way to derail the conversation

algo_trader 6y ago

Separate submission https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23681782 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23681782

anoncareer0212 6y ago

Unfortunately, they can't :/ they committed to using locally made batteries in China, still are sourcing from Panasonic for Fremont, and never got the New York Gigafactory running, even after outsourcing it to Panasonic. The million mile battery Musk has been teasing is from CATL

scythe 6y ago

>But can Tesla sustain any sort of real battery manufacturing advantage over China? We think a lot about developing better car batteries, but car batteries are fine -- if the world had to live with 300-mile ranges, it would probably not be the end of prosperity. What we need are grid batteries, which are the only realistic replacement for fossil fuel power plants -- sorry, nuclear alone, while a valuable part of a future grid, won't handle variable loads. Grid batteries are a commodity. By contrast these increasingly efficient car batteries are basically a luxury product. Unfortunately capitalism won't normally allocate many resources towards something with low profit margins, but the Chinese government will. Whether or not Tesla can keep up with China at making toys, it is no remedy for the lack of action by our own governments to provide technologies Tesla can't make money off of.

NotSammyHagar 6y ago
tesla is doing great making their own batteries with panasonic, that's a key reason they got this far. their new batteries coming in the us will cement their leadership. It's mass high quality batteries that keeps them ahead.

airstrike 6y ago

> Yawn. Another battery breakthrough with x10 price... Who said anything about price? This is an R&D milestone at best, not a consumer product as the article very clearly states both in the subtitle and in the body of the article. > Far more interesting is this [1] Great way to derail the conversation