Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory
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Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory
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Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory
#2Out of curiosity, with the recent release of their patents, is Tesla going to be enabling other car manufacturers to purchase these batteries? Standardising on a housing module across manufacturers seems a 'good thing' for the general consumer.
Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory
#3So are they working on a new battery design?
The last time I did some research on the Tesla batteries it was just a ton of high-quality 18650s, is this still true?
Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory
#4Out of curiosity, with the recent release of their patents, is Tesla going to be enabling other car manufacturers to purchase these batteries? Standardising on a housing module across manufacturers seems a 'good thing' for the general consumer.
I don't see why they wouldn't, they already sell their powertrains to other companies.
It would probably depend on how much extra capacity they have. The Tesla vehicles are in high demand and only going to be in more demand when they start rolling out the Tesla 3 (which is really the 4th Tesla isn't it, I guess they're referring to it being the 3rd generation with the Model S and X being the same generation).
Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory
#5So are they working on a new battery design? The last time I did some research on the Tesla batteries it was just a ton of high-quality 18650s, is this still true?
Yes.
Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory
#6Why are most of the lithium cells cylindrical, while most of our devices are cuboid? (I think of phones, laptops, external battries... but phones and most laptops have flat lithium cells nowadays). Is cylindrical less expensive? Is it more secure? It seems like a waste of space to me.
Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory
#7Why are most of the lithium cells cylindrical, while most of our devices are cuboid? (I think of phones, laptops, external battries... but phones and most laptops have flat lithium cells nowadays). Is cylindrical less expensive? Is it more secure? It seems like a waste of space to me.
Don't cylinders have fewer potential points of failure? (2 edges at either face vs 8 corners). Not really sure!
Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory
#8Out of curiosity, with the recent release of their patents, is Tesla going to be enabling other car manufacturers to purchase these batteries? Standardising on a housing module across manufacturers seems a 'good thing' for the general consumer.
They plan to have capacity of 35-50 GWh at 2020 [0]. IMO they will not be able to produce so many cars, to use all the battery capacity in Tesla cars they would to make ~0.5 Million cars per year. This means that they do plan to sell the excess capacity.
[0]http://www.teslamotors.com/sites/default/files/blog_attachme...
Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory
#9Why are most of the lithium cells cylindrical, while most of our devices are cuboid? (I think of phones, laptops, external battries... but phones and most laptops have flat lithium cells nowadays). Is cylindrical less expensive? Is it more secure? It seems like a waste of space to me.
It would at least include a bit of space for expansion without immediately damaging surrounding cells or the enclosure, I guess.
Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory
#10Why are most of the lithium cells cylindrical, while most of our devices are cuboid? (I think of phones, laptops, external battries... but phones and most laptops have flat lithium cells nowadays). Is cylindrical less expensive? Is it more secure? It seems like a waste of space to me.
I think they use standard 18650 batteries (might be wrong) and there have been discussions from Tesla saying that the round batteries also have the benefit of allowing an air gap to insulate and help mitigate overheating problems.
Plus they are mass produced, cheap, and have a relatively high energy density.
The new factory might work on creating some new battery technologies though, not sure. Ideally yes, you want the battery as compact as possible and lots of round batteries aren't the most efficient for that, but when you factor in cost and the natural heat insulation, it might have been the best option at the time. If it works, roll with it and work on one of the numerous other problems they have to solve.