i just came across this: Tesla Motors Inc : Panasonic And Tesla Reach Agreement To Expand Supply Of Automotive-Grade Battery Cells | 4-Traders 2 billion cells over 4 years time makes 500million/year. How many cells do have in Model S? 7000? then we get app. 71500 cars/year
One of our members spoke with Musk about a week ago and Elon said the bottleneck problems with batteries had been resolved. Panasonic also implied in their annual report they would probably double and possibly triple sales of batteries to Tesla next year. This makes it official and gives us some specific numbers.
Wow! This might cause the stock to pop today if the press starts to crunch the numbers and do some much-needed projections based off this -- I wonder if the Samsung deal forced Panasonic to step up? And... I wonder if the Samsung deal is still happening, I recall reading rumors that Tesla would have Samsung supply its batteries for Model X. This deal was also supposedly in the "final stages" last I read: http://www.streetinsider.com/Insiders+Blog/Samsung+SDI+CEO+Affirms+Battery+Supply+Talks+with+Tesla+(TSLA)/8781408.html
Is it me or isn't this just unbelievably fantastic news!? No production constraints in the near future! And with Samsung and LG possibly coming online as well, the road to a massive Model E rollout is swiftly coming to fruition.
Not necessarily, Panasonic will have to build extra plants for this, and they may decide to build them in the US.
It sure would. They're within a hair of the 60% North American content to fall under the NAFTA agreement. I think they were less than 2% short. As a result we have to pay import duty. So moving the battery production to the USA would have a significant impact on Canadian pricing.
I find it pretty staggering to consider this works out to just under 1.4 million batteries per day over that 4 year period, assuming 7 days of production per week, and no ramp-up! With ramp-up, it will be even larger toward the end.
We've been told it's more than 7,000 batteries in the model S 85kw - which means 2,000,000,000 (billion) divided by 70000 is approx 285000+ 85kw packs. That should carry them through Model X and into Model E
Great news! Panasonic will add one more line to the existing factory, and restart production at the old factory which once stopped battery production. @viperboy: I think roadster had 6831 cells at 53kWh. That said Model S 85kWh could have 10955 cells?
Tesla Motors is also talking to Samsung and LG regarding the production and delivery of battery cells, but there has not been any agreement signed yet (if I recal correctly), right?
@Right_Said_Fred: Thanks for the correction. @Benz: Japanese Reuters news said Tesla had business with Samsung and LG when manufacturing Roadster, and for ModelS, Tesla is in talks with them, according to Tesla PR.
AFAIK the only confirmed cell supplier for the Roadster was Sanyo (but they were bought by Panasonic).
Maybe they will be converting one of their plasma factories to start producing batteries. Smart move though Tesla, once again seems like an Apple move when they started scooping up all the NAND Flash memory to avoid supply constraints, and consequently made it harder for other manufactures to acquire.
Did anyone factor in the demand for Mercedes and Toyota power trains and battery backs? I couldn't find any data on the progress there but I would imagine that not all battery cells will go into production of Model S/X.
Toyota is building 2600 Rav4 EVs, and that production will end this spring as Toyota moves on to a hydrogen car for CARB-ZEV compliance. Mercedes must build far, far less than Toyota. How many "extra" cars above the minimum CARB-ZEV compliance that Mercedes might build is a guess, but I'll guess that it's "not that many". Like the Rav4 EV, the Mercedes has the telltale signs of pure "compliance-only" to me, right down to the 100-ish mile range without ANY quick charge capability.