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Tesla is a Battery Company

blog.jeremyrwelch.com

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Re: Tesla is a Battery Company

#81

Post by saryant »

chatmasta wrote: post #63

Also consider: - solar city benefits from increased storage capabilities of batteries. Solar panels (a capital investment) generate higher returns when they also power buildings at night. - National electric grids benefit from increased battery storage because they can store electricity for hours after it's actually generated. - tesla is building a network of superchargers all connected to the electric grid - tesla h…

How on earth can a strategy centered around generating, storing and transmitting electricity be considered blue-ocean?

Re: Tesla is a Battery Company

#82

Post by richardw »

I can't see Musk trying to build a battery company as his primary focus. That's not exactly a world-changing life goal (well, for him. I'd be happy with that). That's like saying that Apple is a chip company because their chips are central to efficiency.

The battery might currently be the most important single component of an EV, but there is no guarantee that will be true in five/ten/twenty years. The car is more than just a mechanism to increase scale. You don't beat Musk by making a better battery company. You'd better find a way to beat this:

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-tesla-model-s-is-consumer...

(The word 'battery' is not even mentioned in the article. Tesla could have less battery life but still win.)

Again, similar to Apple, Tesla found a point of advantage and will own it. The landscape will change and so will Tesla's efforts at building or maintaining an advantage against some very powerful companies.

Re: Tesla is a Battery Company

#83

Post by cfreeman »

ferongr wrote: post #54
pdonis wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The battery in a Tesla Model S is literally a huge array of Panasonic flashlight batteries. It is an off-the-shelf catalog item you can order from Panasonic. Um, no. Viewing the battery of a Tesla Model S as just a big flashlight battery misses the whole point of what Tesla is doing. A flashlight battery does one thing: it discharges energy until it's empty. Even an ordinary rechargeable household battery only does…

The cells themselves are COTS Panasonic NCR18650A without built-in protection circuits.. The management circuits are probably developed by Tesla but are external to the batteries, most likely a circuit per array of parallel cells. Having a protection circuit per cell would be wasteful and also result in quite a bit of power loss and complexity in wiring them up.

They aren't really COTS. They were for the Roadster, but for the Model S they use a specialized chemistry as well as removing the protection circuit.

[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9c...)

Re: Tesla is a Battery Company

#85

Post by rplnt »

happertiger wrote: post #11

If Tesla executes, they are going to be the leading company in a number of industries, of which battery technology and manufacturing is one of them. They are also leaders in direct sales, JIT manufacturing, motor design, any one of which is a disruptive innovation channel they could monetize, all in the service of building electric cars. Tesla is an energy company, a battery company, a car company, etc, just as GE or…

How are they multi-national?

Re: Tesla is a Battery Company

#86

Post by sparkman55 »

saryant wrote: post #81
chatmasta wrote: post #63

Also consider: - solar city benefits from increased storage capabilities of batteries. Solar panels (a capital investment) generate higher returns when they also power buildings at night. - National electric grids benefit from increased battery storage because they can store electricity for hours after it's actually generated. - tesla is building a network of superchargers all connected to the electric grid - tesla h…

How on earth can a strategy centered around generating, storing and transmitting electricity be considered blue-ocean?

Well, the innovation is really about storing electricity. We've been generating and transmitting electricity for over a century now.

Once we can store electricity (in batteries, for example), then intermittent power sources, like solar panels (and also wind turbines) become much more valuable.

Energy storage is a very inconsequential market right now, but if smart-grid-connected Teslas really take off, then they become important not only to the automotive industry, but also the electricity and energy industries.

Re: Tesla is a Battery Company

#87

Post by kriro »

chatmasta wrote: post #60
shas3 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually, with exceptions, conglomerates (the dreaded c-word) are not desired by investors. There's even an estimated "conglomerate discount" for companies of this kind. With certain word-replacements, your comment can be applied for Hewlett Packard too, until the last part. GE, Berkshire Hathaway, General Dynamics, UTC, Honeywell, DuPont, 3M, etc. are exceptions to the rule, when it comes to the performance of conglo…

Those conglomerates developed before the age of computers. They designed their operational structures without the convenience of modern technology, and therefore relied on expanding work forces to grow their company. Labor was cheap, and necessary for growth at the time because humans had to do so much more than they do now. Facebook is a multinational company with only a few thousand fulltime employees. If GE or Mic…

The conglomerate structure is kept by choice in the case of Berkshire Hathaway. There's a pretty good outline of the reasoning by Buffett in the 50th anniversary letter.

3M is often used as an example in Strategic Management, particularly as an example of Mintzberg's views (strategies emerge and are not planned). I think the emerged strategy is usually labeled "working with surface material" or something.

I guess one could argue "battery company" is an emergent strategy for Tesla in that sense but I think there's certainly planning to it and it wasn't just discovered. But you can use that "post-branding" that is typical of Mintzberg and I think the author of the blog does a good job.

Re: Tesla is a Battery Company

#88

Post by weavie »

richardw wrote: post #82

I can't see Musk trying to build a battery company as his primary focus. That's not exactly a world-changing life goal (well, for him. I'd be happy with that). That's like saying that Apple is a chip company because their chips are central to efficiency. The battery might currently be the most important single component of an EV, but there is no guarantee that will be true in five/ten/twenty years. The car is more th…

Batteries may appear quite humble, but they are at the core of just about every technological advancement we have at the minute. Cars, laptops, phones, wearable devices.. they all depend on batteries. At the minute battery life is a real bottleneck for us. We are turning into a nation that plans their life around moving from charging station to charging station. Batteries are heavy and they don't last that long. The next truly world changing advancement is going to have to involve making access to energy much less heavy.

Re: Tesla is a Battery Company

#89

Post by stevewilhelm »

> Tesla is a Battery Company

Too narrow. Tesla is a electrical energy storage and distribution company. Tesla has over 400 Supercharger stations.

I think this quote sums it up:

“I see us more as an energy innovation company, at our core, than even as a car company.”

Re: Tesla is a Battery Company

#90

Post by davedx »

rplnt wrote: post #85
happertiger wrote: post #11

If Tesla executes, they are going to be the leading company in a number of industries, of which battery technology and manufacturing is one of them. They are also leaders in direct sales, JIT manufacturing, motor design, any one of which is a disruptive innovation channel they could monetize, all in the service of building electric cars. Tesla is an energy company, a battery company, a car company, etc, just as GE or…

How are they multi-national?

They sell cars in multiple countries. For example, here in the Netherlands, Tesla has a pretty big presence for the size of the company. I frequently see Model S's on the roads here.
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