Tesla 4680 Battery With New Chemistry and Tabless technology
When Tesla released its ground breaking roadster, it was the first time an automobile company used a lithium-ion battery in a production electric vehicle. While the company has made many improvements to its battery in subsequent models. It wanted something more and embarked on the radical 4680 battery. Now that Tesla’s insane new 4680 battery is finally here. What makes it beat all other batteries hands down?
The battery is one of the most crucial components in an electric vehicle. Without it the car is not moving an inch. Apart from providing the energy to move the tires the battery basically determines the price in the budget to mid-range priced electric vehicles. It also determines the car’s weight as it could be up to one-third of the curb weight. Also importantly if the battery is not well made. It could be a potential fire risk and trigger massive recalls after buyers have started.
As it is put gm in an unenviable position with its bolt EVs. But more importantly the battery determines how far you can drive before you need to stop for a charge. With charging infrastructure still in its infancy in most places. The battery could make or break an electric vehicle. This is why Tesla pays so much attention to its batteries.
It has some of the most extended ranges in the car industry. For example the model’s long range has a range of 405 miles as certified by the EPA. While having superchargers all over the place can help reduce or alleviate range anxiety. Tesla chose to tackle the battery itself and made astounding all-around improvements and that was how the insane new Tesla 4680 Battery was born. Tesla spends a lot of money and human resources on its battery which shows in the new battery. The automotive world went into a frenzy on Tesla’s battery day in 2021. When musk took to the stage to take the wraps off the new 4680 battery.
The list of improvements was as long as an arm part of Tesla’s road map is sustaining a 40 to 50 percent growth year on year with calls for a rapidly rising supply of batteries. With the Tesla 4680 battery Tesla has plugged any deficit in what its battery suppliers can bring and its increasing battery needs.
This will allow Tesla to maintain its leading position in the electric automobile world. Interestingly Tesla did not begin the design of the battery from the chemistry itself instead in a reflection of musk’s obsession with first principle thinking. The team looked at the lowest common denominator. Which in this case was the simplest truth anchoring the battery to the mineral it was comprised of? After this had been defined and refined repeatedly the team was able to build an optimized design.
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Tesla’s journey to designing the 4680 battery included snapping up battery pioneers from Maxwell technologies and high bar systems. Its experience building its first battery plant in NEVADA also helped because it acquired manufacturing equipment experts at Groman automation. As the most vertically integrated company globally, Tesla’s aim from the get-go was to eliminate inefficiencies and improve the sustainability of the process it would use to make the batteries. This motivation influenced many aspects of the battery.
For example the Tesla 4680 uses an architecture that eliminates tabs from the design. Which is why the new battery is also called tablets. This single step has several significant impacts on the production of the battery. For one the battery production line doesn’t have to pause to add the tabs which means manufacturing takes place faster.
Eliminating the tab also removes a potential source of a manufacturing defect as there’s no need to weld any components together. So Tesla’s plant will churn out the Tesla 4680 battery cells at a fast clip without worrying about a defect. Tesla’s project roadrunner established a pilot line for the new battery at its Cato road facility in Fremont California where it worked out the kinks in the production lines.
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Compared to other batteries the cylindrical Tesla 4680 cell is a jumbo pack with a diameter of 46 millimetres and a height of 80 millimetres which is where the name derived from this larger jelly roll packs more active battery materials into the case. Tesla reckons this increase in active content alone, results in five times improvement in energy storage and six times increase in power. When the new cells are packed into an existing 2170 battery pack, it netted a 16 increase in range.
Remember the tab Tesla eliminated that step has another amazing effect. As it makes it easier and faster for electrons to move from place to place inside the cell digging into the chemistry of the Tesla 4680 battery. Tesla also made some changes in the components. Tesla found a way to increase the amount of silicon in the battery by starting with the raw silicon which cut the cost by five percent and increased the range by 20 percent.
Tesla also broke away from the traditional method of making battery cathodes in the new battery the engineers went as deep as the global supply chain to design a cheaper more streamlined process that produces less waste. Even though it’s the best anchor material for a cathode cobalt has been problematic in battery production. The material is highly toxic putting everybody involved in its supply at risk right from the mining stage. Speaking of mining all the cobalt used globally comes from a single country. The democratic republic of Congo where instability and corruption are rife the combination of the two leads to unstable prices and supply.
Tesla designed its way out of handling toxic cobalt which is smart as it plans to scale up its battery production rapidly with a goal of 3 terawatt hours of battery per year. Tesla should try as much as possible to remove any volatile material from its supply chain. The solution was replacing cobalt with nickel in the cathode. Nickel is cheaper and reduced the cost of a cathode by 15% but altogether Tesla’s new method resulted in a massive 66 percent in the capital expenditures for cathode production and as a win for the environment Tesla will use far less water and produce no waste water at all.
Due to the elimination of the tab and the larger diameter of the cell the Tesla 4680 battery has the thermal management efficiency of a smaller cell. Heat is a big deal during battery charging making it challenging to charge larger tabbed cells but this is not an issue with Tesla’s design. Putting all the benefits together you’ll see the Tesla 4680 battery is a paradigm shift in electric vehicle energy storage.
Several of Tesla’s vehicles that will benefit from this new powerful Tesla 4680 battery are the model y, the cyber truck, the new generation roadster and the semi-truck. Tesla has taken delivery of some materials for the Tesla 4680 cells at the Giga factory Texas. This was captured by twitter user at Peterdog 15 hinting Tesla has started installing the equipment for the cell production line at Giga Texas.
This would tally with musk’s statement during the second quarter earnings call in which he said they had a massive amount of equipment on order at Austin and berlin. At Giga Texas alone Tesla will make 100 Giga Watt hours of cells. Tesla has embarked on adding a battery plant to Giga Berlin. Where it stands to receive up to 1 billion euros as incentives from the German government.
This edition was responsible for Tesla having to refile its application for Giga berlin approval. It displayed the Tesla 4680 cells as part of its structural battery that it is adopting for its vehicles in the future. Tesla’s making the machines that will produce the battery in Canada. It established its first production facility in the country in the city of Markham. The machines will be exported to all of Tesla’s battery making plants around the world.
Tesla is also inked a deal with china-based Gan Fang Lithium Company limited. The largest lithium company by market capitalization for the supply of battery grade lithium products for three years. That Tesla is building factories for the Tesla 4680 batteries does not mean its saying goodbye to its battery partners.
Panasonic with which it has a history has joined Tesla to mass produce the battery cells. Its CEO Kazoo Tenenobu even corroborated the increased capacity of the new battery. which he says is five times more than the capacity of the 2170. Panasonic has confirmed japan as a location for a prototype production line from which deployment to other sites will take place. Let’s hear what you think of Tesla’s 4680 battery in the comments section.
