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Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory

teslamotors.com

11–20 of 109 posts

Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory

#11
post #6

Why 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.

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Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory

#12
post #6

Why 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.

There was a recent discussion about cylinders on HN which might be of interest: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8097125

Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory

#13
post #6

Why 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's an efficiency matter. The cylinder gives good electrode surface relative to the amount of matter contained. For a cube that ratio would be much worse, for a sphere it would be optimal, but spheres are harder to manufacture and connect to, as well as harder to stack in arrays. So we take a medium between the sphere and the cube and end up with a sweet spot in the cylindrical shape.

Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory

#14
post #3

So 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?

Tesla still uses 18650 cells exclusively, unless I'm misinformed. They are still chemistry and form factor agnostic and only care about performance and price. This announcement is part of a plan to further reduce battery cell and battery pack cost, as well as increase production volumes by a factor of 10-50 over the next 10 years. I don't think there is any information on how these new batteries will look yet.

Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory

#15
I want to own an electric car so badly in my lifetime.

Really hope this makes that happen.

They sure are quiet though, I worry about pets and wildlife.

Gigafactory will employ about 6,500 people by 2020

Delivery truck drivers? I mean the factory is should be mostly automated by 2020.

Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory

#16
post #15

I want to own an electric car so badly in my lifetime. Really hope this makes that happen. They sure are quiet though, I worry about pets and wildlife. Gigafactory will employ about 6,500 people by 2020 Delivery truck drivers? I mean the factory is should be mostly automated by 2020.

where do you live, where owning an electric car in your lifetime seem like a distant dream?

and why do you want to own one so badly?

Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory

#17
Again as with my previous response, I still dont get why the need for a Gigafactory. Battery Industry are an extremely automated, high volume market and with profit margin in single digit. Cutting those off aren't going to automatically made electric cars affordable.

Unless Telsa and Panasonic has jointly developed an revolutionary battery that is going to need some funding and mass produced. But any new battery will need years in time for safety testing. And the news would properly have leaked by now.

Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory

#18
post #15

I want to own an electric car so badly in my lifetime. Really hope this makes that happen. They sure are quiet though, I worry about pets and wildlife. Gigafactory will employ about 6,500 people by 2020 Delivery truck drivers? I mean the factory is should be mostly automated by 2020.

Just move to the bay area or Norway, both of these places seem to issue Teslas to everyone ;)

Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory

#19
post #15

I want to own an electric car so badly in my lifetime. Really hope this makes that happen. They sure are quiet though, I worry about pets and wildlife. Gigafactory will employ about 6,500 people by 2020 Delivery truck drivers? I mean the factory is should be mostly automated by 2020.

"Mostly automated" is still a lot of maintenance and continuous improvement engineering.

Re: Panasonic and Tesla Sign Agreement for the Gigafactory

#20
post #18
post #15

I want to own an electric car so badly in my lifetime. Really hope this makes that happen. They sure are quiet though, I worry about pets and wildlife. Gigafactory will employ about 6,500 people by 2020 Delivery truck drivers? I mean the factory is should be mostly automated by 2020.

Just move to the bay area or Norway, both of these places seem to issue Teslas to everyone ;)

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