Tesla and China’s top electric vehicle battery maker CATL have agreed to a supply agreement, according to a Reuters report. While the partnership had been previously acknowledged, a new filing confirms the deal. “‘Tesla will determine the battery purchase volume between July 2020 and June 2022, according to its own needs,’ CATL said in a…
Check out our fun speculation based on known quantities. Tesla has something up its sleeve and, as usual, it’s not telling anyone about it yet. We should get a better idea of what it is at the upcoming “Powertrain and Battery Day” that Tesla has planned for later this year. Tesla has given us some…
Panasonic said this week in its earnings report that it is ramping up battery production at Gigafactory 1, its joint venture with Tesla. “We are quickly ramping up battery production (at the Gigafactory), but improvements in production efficiency have been delayed,” Chief Financial Officer Hirokazu Umeda said in a briefing Thursday. Umeda added that Gigafactory…
Is this the wave of the future? Until now, battery-pack production has followed the same basic procedure. A company that specializes in making battery cells like Panasonic or LG Chem makes the individual cells and then the automakers take those cells and package them into a battery pack. In other words, the cell production is…
A new paper by Tesla’s head battery researcher Jeff Dahn suggests the company is developing battery cells that will power a vehicle for more than a million miles. Dahn’s team at the Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science at Dalhousie University has been testing a moderate-energy-density lithium-ion pouch cell chemistry, which differs from the cylindrical…
We use track data, charging data, and some simple math to estimate results. Our preliminary estimate is that the Tesla Model 3 Performance, due to high battery temps, would not be able to charge at 250 kW like the Taycan at the high ambient temps encountered at the Nardo track. Also, the total miles the…
Tesla will reportedly contract LG to supply batteries for vehicles built at its Shanghai plant. The deal would diversify Tesla’s battery suppliers, as the company currently sources batteries from Panasonic. Reuters, citing sources close to the deal, reported that Tesla is still likely to use Panasonic batteries in the initial phase of production and source…
Tesla said a Model S fire in Shanghai was caused by a single battery module. The fire, which broke out in April, attracted international headlines, prompting Tesla to issue an explanation. Additionally, Tesla issued a software update it said will help prevent the failure from occurring in other vehicles. Tesla said an investigation of the…
Tesla is operating a secret research and development facility where it aims to build its own battery cells, according to a report from CNBC. The electric vehicle maker currently relies on Panasonic to produce cells, but Tesla likely hopes to lower the development cost and increase the performance of the battery packs used in its…
It may not be about battery tech, but instead, an increased rate of production and capital savings. Tesla — and essentially all other automakers — are dealing with battery cell constraints. While most mainstream articles point to the Tesla / Maxwell acquisition’s worth when it comes to battery tech and energy density, Maxwell’s solvent-free electrode…
