Firstly, I just wanted to mention, when we conjecture about these items, it's worth remembering that until the Spring of 2013, Elon and Tesla as a whole did not think they'd have anywhere near the kind of money they now have to work with. Some of the "No, not happening" on various ideas that we had heard in the past may have had to do with a lack of financial resources which is no longer an issue (that said, surely some of the "No, not happening" to ideas thrown at Tesla no amount of money would change... me and Colbert will probably have to manage without "jet packs"). I'm not suggesting that they have $3 billion for these other R&D cards, the $2 billion from this past February's capital raise is ultimately said to be for the Gigafactory, and much of last May's $1 billion raise is being poured into new service centers and SuperChargers, but it is reasonable to think that there is far more money available for R&D projects today than what seemed realistic a year and a half ago. (to put this in context the unexpectedness of these funds, Elon has publicly stated that he really did not know in advance if the stock would go up or down after the earnings release last spring that led to the price soaring, and set the stage for raising funds with the two big convertible debt offerings. in addition, their global expectation for S/X sales is about triple what it was entering 2013, meaning their ongoing business is generating far more funds for them to reinvest in the business than seemed plausible not too long ago).
Thanks for the explanation Mitch. Glad to hear what Tesla would need to do for backup power is already well understood. It seems like a considerably simpler first step to making more use of the pack than going right to V2G.
As to pack degradation... that's why I thought Mitch had made a very good point upthread about Tesla possibly having gotten more comfortable with the pack life. Tesla's statements and pack warranty imply the pack will be appropriate for automotive use roughly 10 years. A month or two ago one of the members here, who does seem to have a strong battery background, was pretty emphatically suggesting that the pack will be great for vehicle use for 300K miles, if not more, based on data already existing on 18650s he documented. My recollection is he was suggesting ~90% capacity after 300K miles. Granted, time will tell how the packs hold up in the cars, but what the other poster said was very consistent with what Mitch is suggesting. Tesla may have seen enough to make them comfortable that people wont trash the reputation of the packs if they have the ability to use them for emergency backup, or possibly even V2G.
As to "some really cool tech", agreed, I was thinking more something that changes or augments the drivetrain, like adding metal air as a range extender.
Thanks for the explanation Mitch. Glad to hear what Tesla would need to do for backup power is already well understood. It seems like a considerably simpler first step to making more use of the pack than going right to V2G.
As to pack degradation... that's why I thought Mitch had made a very good point upthread about Tesla possibly having gotten more comfortable with the pack life. Tesla's statements and pack warranty imply the pack will be appropriate for automotive use roughly 10 years. A month or two ago one of the members here, who does seem to have a strong battery background, was pretty emphatically suggesting that the pack will be great for vehicle use for 300K miles, if not more, based on data already existing on 18650s he documented. My recollection is he was suggesting ~90% capacity after 300K miles. Granted, time will tell how the packs hold up in the cars, but what the other poster said was very consistent with what Mitch is suggesting. Tesla may have seen enough to make them comfortable that people wont trash the reputation of the packs if they have the ability to use them for emergency backup, or possibly even V2G.
As to "some really cool tech", agreed, I was thinking more something that changes or augments the drivetrain, like adding metal air as a range extender.
). Ready to deliver in Q1 2016? 
