It will be interesting to see how it plays out. It's a bit of an unknown on that front and it is interesting that the Plaid S utilizes the smallest form factor cells (18650) instead of the 2170, let alone holding out for the 4680. I think there are going to be tradeoffs and I'm interested to see how things stack up once they are churning out cars with 4680 cells.
the listed reduction in weight is 25 pounds. at 280 miles of range. All the projections of stunning driving improvements people made with deluded.
Same here. I have really enjoyed my $49K MY LR. I also have a discount Rivian preorder from late last year. I don't know what I'll do for a vehicle in 2023, but it sure has been beneficial to not constantly wait for some new battery architecture that will most likely benefit the manufacturer, not the buyer.
something light, inexpensive and structural with good bonding properties that wouldn’t break down with the chemicals in the fluid or the endless warm/cold temp swings. composite tubes filled with closed-cell foam maybe.
The supercharging speed thing is also debatable. If anything, the larger cells might slow things down though the tabless design might counter some of that. I really don't think it's going to be a big leap on that front at all and might even get gimped a bit. The Plaid S has the best charging curve amongst Tesla cars and uses the smallest form factor cells (not even the current 2170, but the 18650). 4680 will be good for Tesla's bottom line. I think some folks are pinning way too much on them being some revolutionary leap when it comes to their own experience of owning a 4680 equipped car.
The form factor wouldn't improve the supercharge speed, but aren't the 4680s using different chemistry and cooling methods vs the 2170 pack? If they design the cooling system better in the 4680 pack then i can see how it would improve supercharge speed. But honestly 0-80% in 30 minutes is pretty hard to top these days.
Form factor does impact cooling efficiency. The larger the cells, the lower the surface area to volume ratio, so the more heat you have to wick away from less effective surface area. That's over simplifying but also likely the reason for the Plaid S going with the 18650 over 2170. The big question is whether tabless design, lower internal resistance, chemistry, etc., can counter this sufficiently. Pendulum could swing either way but it isn't at all clear if this will even improve over the 2170 when it comes to charge curves, let alone significantly surpass them. Everything is conjecture at this point in the absence of any hard data from Tesla, but the only thing we do know is the 4680 cells will inherently start with a disadvantage on the thermals side of things for the reasons above.
it won't be on the MS or MX because they've just gone thru an engineering refresh and the decision was made not to go 4680.
