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After reinventing the electric vehicle (EV) industry a decade ago, Tesla now is poised to begin commercial-scale production of its reinvented EV battery, the model 4680.
What’s different about the 4680? Here’s what Tesla claims.
First, instead of a series of flat plates or square blocks making up the usual battery array, the 4680 is a single cylinder. The new shape helps the battery pack five times more energy per volume of space than a conventional battery design. The tubular form boosts an EV’s range by 16 percent, Tesla says.
Second, the new design also eliminates tabs. That’s a big deal.
Tabs in an EV battery are the pathway through which electric current flows out of the battery to make an EV’s motor run.
Putting tabs in an EV battery is a laborious process that slows the manufacturing process, adding cost. Tabbed batteries also can build up heat.
Tesla’s tabless batteries produce less heat for the same volume compared to conventional batteries, which allows engineers to store even more power in the same amount of space.
Third, Tesla has figured out how to use more silicon and less lithium in its batteries. Silicon is the second most abundant element in the Earth’s crust; therefore, it’s dirt cheap as well as easier to source.
Fourth, the 4680 doesn’t use cobalt, the rare and toxic metal that comes mainly from the Republic of the Congo in Africa. Instead, the battery uses nickel, a common metal now in short supply but that Tesla already has signed contracts for with Canadian mining and refining companies.
Fifth, the cylindrical shape and tabless design have let Tesla redesign the 4680’s manufacturing process from beginning to end, creating economies all along the way.
Those changes, plus hundreds of small tweaks, have created a battery technology that cuts costs:
- by 14 percent per kilowatt/hour (kWh) by using a cylindrical shape;
- by 18 percent per kWh through a manufacturing line that takes up 90 percent less space, uses 90 percent less energy, and produces no wastewater;
- by 5 percent per kWh by using nickel in place of cobalt;
- by another 5 percent per kWh by upping the battery’s proportion of silicon.
Tesla has redesigned its vehicle chassis to accommodate the 4680’s shape, which streamlines the vehicle’s form and manufacturing and cuts an additional 7 percent from costs.
Reinventing EV batteries has been a long-term goal at Tesla, achieved in part by acquiring Maxwell Technologies, Hibar Systems, and other firms, each with unique expertise in various areas of battery chemistry and design.
Tesla will make the 4680 itself but also has contracted with Panasonic to produce the new battery as well, beginning in April 2023.
TRENDPOST: If Tesla’s claims for the 4680 prove out, the innovation will create a new generation of lower-priced Teslas that will bring more EV drivers into the fold.
However, the availability and price of computer chips and other key materials and components remains a huge unknown for the entire EV industry.