Hey guys, Just wondering if Tesla builds its own capacitors in house for the Model S or does it buy them in? I assume some capacitors must be used in such a large electronic device? Maxwell is based in California and seems to be a leader in capacitor technology. Also named after a brilliant scientist. Would be cool to see Tesla and Maxwell working together (or maybe a buy out by Tesla?) Anyone think Maxwell might have a supplier roll to play at the Gigafactory? MXWL shares at a 52 week low currently. Maybe worth a stab? I know Musk has said publicly that he feels capacitors will eventually replace batteries. I have also seen that some of Tesla's patents call for a capacitor/battery hybrid system being used. Obviously this is further down the road but a Maxwell acquisition now could keep Tesla at the forefront of capacitor technology and experimentation while continuing to focus on batteries in the short/medium term. From the Maxwell website it is clear that capacitors have a roll to play in the EV industry, stationary storage, solar, and space businesses as well so maybe picking up Maxwell on the cheap now could be a good move for Tesla, SolarCity, and SpaceX? Maxwell Technologies Ultracapacitors, Supercapacitors, Microelectronics and High Voltage Keen to hear your thoughts. Cheers, Ted
Trying to cause a stock run-up by creating a Tesla buzz again? (Last year): Maxwell soars amid Tesla-related buzz - Maxwell Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:MXWL) | Seeking Alpha
No I don't own any shares of Maxwell as of yet and wasn't aware of any Tesla-Maxwell rumours in the past. I was just wondering if anybody on the board here knew if Tesla builds their own capacitors in house or does actually source them from somewhere? Maxwell would seem like a good acquisition for all the above reasons I listed. 1. California based with offices around the world. 2. Long history in the auto, renewable energy, and space industries. Just seems like a pretty good fit no? Elon could get controlling interest for around $85 million at current stock price. His involvement would attract the best and brightest into capacitor research which may eventually be the long term answer to cheap and abundant energy storage. Elon himself was studying advanced capacitors at Stanford before he dropped out to form Zip2 and PayPal. Again it all seems to add up to me. Genuinely looking for some feedback here guys. I'm not a stock pusher. Thanks - Ted
Basically only about 10% of the Maxwell investors tendered their shares (I did!), so they extended the deadline and are doing a second mailout to existing shareholders. I am not sure of the regulatory necessities, but I think if they don't get a significant proportion of the shareholders to tender, the takeover will fail. Hence the drop in Maxwell stock price back toward pre-tender levels.
Market is still expecting the merger to happen, though. If it drops back to 3.07, we would know that the market is not expecting the merger to happen.
Of course it sounds like the capacitors aren't what they were ultimately interested in. Still, cool prediction.
Tesla may be able to charge faster with more cell safety with a larger capacitor in the circuit. There seems to be several interesting IP areas at Maxwell, as well as talent that Tesla could use. Tesla is so good at many aspects of electrical engineering that if they want Maxwell I assume it is something special.
There are uses for SuperCaps, but Tesla isn't any of them. It just overly complicates the electronics paths and weighs too much for any benefit. Once inside Tesla, it will be interesting to see if the SuperCap part of Maxwell is allowed to continue or not. My guess is not, because it has never been profitable.
Citation: Amendment No. 8 And here's the press release: Tesla Completes Acquisition of Maxwell Technologies | Tesla, Inc.
To add 1 kWh of ultra capacitor, you’d have to remove 30 kWh of batteries for an equivalent weight and cost. You gain power for very short term acceleration and hard braking events at the expense of a lot of range, slower charging and more cycles (wear and tear) because of fewer batteries. Yes you could charge that 1 kWh of ultra-capacitor super quick, but then you have to wait for it to transfer to the battery, so you haven’t gained any speed other than in charging that very 1st kWh.
The Tesla/Maxwell merger closed exactly on schedule, as predicted by Tesla management on Apr 24, 2019: Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) Q1 2019 Earnings Call Transcript - from the Motley Fool Questions and Answers: Martin Viecha -- Senior Director of Investor Relations Thank you very much, Zachary. Let's take some first questions from retail shareholders who have been submitting their questions on say.com. The first question is, will Tesla be able to complete their purchase of Maxwell Technologies? What is holding that back? Elon R. Musk -- Chief Executive Officer Jonathan, do you want to... Jonathan Chang -- General Counsel Yeah. Hi, it's Jonathan Chang, General Counsel here. Right now, it is going through approvals with the SEC. There is not a whole lot of things holding it back. We're on schedule, we're on track. Right now we're looking to close in mid-May. Elon R. Musk -- Chief Executive Officer Great. Thanks.
To play devil's advocate how much capacity would you need to power the first moment of launch? IOW could it make sense in something like the roadster to have a small capacitor to dump at launch. If I understand things correctly, the power requirement at low RPM is pretty high so a capacitor with enough capacity to boost the launch could have its place in something like the roadster where you could spare a few kWh of battery. I guess put another way, sure you get better overall performance by using a larger battery pack where the increase in size permits faster charging and discharging as well as improved longevity through better distribution. But is there a point where the pack size gets large enough that the incremental improvement of a small delta in battery size would actually be less than apportioning that small amount for launch mode.