To say that Tesla’s future depends on the success or failure of the 4680 battery is no understatement. Without the 4680 elements, Tesla’s efforts to build an affordable car that costs less than the Model 3 will likely be in vain. But if the company manages to ramp up production of its 4680 batteries, Tesla could well pave the way for electric vehicles to become the dominant mode of personal transportation in the coming decades.
Getting there won’t be easy. Tesla officially announced its 4680 battery project in September 2020 and the company has been hard at work ever since to ramp up production of the next generation battery. Tesla released its one millionth 4680 battery in January. This in itself is a milestone, but it shows that the company still has a long way to go before it can fully power up its new battery.
Industry researcher Benchmark Mineral Intelligence estimates that one million 4680 cells is enough for about 1,200 Model Ys. Tesla intends to produce many more per week at the Gigafactory in Texas alone.
Tesla 4680 cells are not designed like conventional batteries, nor are they made like traditional cells. Tesla plans to use a new manufacturing technology called dry-coated electrodes, which came from a 2019 acquisition by Maxwell Technologies. Dry-electrode production will allow Tesla to skip the normal production step of traditional batteries, which should significantly reduce costs.
While Tesla has acquired the technology, the innovations associated with mass-producing 4680 cells using dry-coated electrodes are a major challenge. Elon Musk noted that only factory equipment for the process “does not exist”, so it still needs to be manufactured.
Shirley Man, a professor at the University of Chicago who previously worked with Maxwell, noted that Tesla’s efforts to create the 4680 battery could change the industry. She also stressed that Tesla’s challenges in mass-producing the next generation battery will be huge. “He (Elon Musk) is changing the way batteries are made. It’s really very difficult to produce at that speed and on a large scale,” she said. She also stated that Tesla may have to go through the start of Death Valley to expand its 4680 cell dry electrode manufacturing process.
However, she believes that Tesla will overcome these difficulties.
Other experts and longtime followers of the company seem to agree on the difficulties involved in developing and implementing a new type of battery cell. Caspar Rawls, director of data for Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, noted that fine-tuning manufacturing equipment just for battery production is an extremely time-consuming process that poses a challenge even to industry veterans. “There is a very long process of fine-tuning the equipment before you can start mass production. Battery production is difficult, even for experienced suppliers,” he said.
This is definitely the case with Panasonic. The Japanese tech conglomerate has been a longtime Tesla partner and already operates Gigafactory Nevada with the electric car maker. However, recent comments by Kazuo Tadanobu, CEO of Panasonic’s energy division, indicated that even Panasonic had to take their time developing 4680 batteries. year ending March 2024.
Tesla 4680 cells are expected to be used in vehicles such as the Tesla Semi, Cybertruck and the company’s flagship supercar, the new Roadster. Next-generation batteries are also expected to be used in Tesla’s next big project, producing an affordable $25,000 electric car.
*Quotes courtesy of Reuters.
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Tesla 4680 battery ramp may experience the beginning of Death Valley, but it will be overcome: expert
