First look at Tesla’s new battery cell produced in-house with Roadrunner

[TruckElectric]

Electrek has an exclusive first look at Tesla’s new battery cell produced in-house with its new Roadrunner battery manufacturing system.

Ahead of Tesla’s “Battery Day,” we have been reporting on the automaker’s effort to build its own battery cells.

Earlier this year, Electrek has exclusively revealed Tesla’s secret “Roadrunner” project, which consists of its in-house designed battery cell manufacturing system to increase production volume and reduce cost.

Tesla built a “Tera battery manufacturing facility” in its facilities on Kato Road next to its factory in Fremont to house the project.

While we got some information on Tesla’s effort to develop novel manufacturing systems to build battery cells, we didn’t have much information on the cells themselves.

Now we get what might be the very first look at these new battery cells produced by Tesla.

An anonymous source sent Electrek two pictures of a battery cell claiming that they were Tesla’s new in-house cell:

We started asking sources and circulating the images around to gather more information on this mysterious and large battery cell:



Another independent source was able to confirm to Electrek that this is indeed one of Tesla’s own battery cells produced with the Roadrunner system.

Tesla is still keeping the specs of the cell close to its chest, but we are still able to find out a few new details about the cell.


The diameter of the new cell is twice as big as Tesla’s 2170 cells currently used in Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and produced by Panasonic at Gigafactory Nevada.

Doubling the diameter of a battery cell results in four times the volume in the cell.

If the new volume is used efficiently, you gain a lot of capacity while reducing cost with fewer casings and fewer cells per pack.

Furthermore, the pictures appear to show a tabless cell, which is something we know Tesla has been working on.

Earlier this year, Tesla applied for a patent a new battery cell with a tabless electrode that Elon Musk hyped as “way more important than it sounds.”

The new cell design helps reduce the internal cell resistance for the current paths inside the cell, improving performance.

On top of the cell capacity improvements, the lack of a tab reduces cost and simplifies manufacturing.

Tesla is currently building a pilot production line to produce those cells in volume in Fremont. Tesla Grohmann, the company’s automation group, is currently building the machines for higher-volume production based on what they are learning from the pilot line, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The automaker is also planning to deploy the battery manufacturing system at its upcoming Gigafactory Texas in Austin.

More information is expected to be released at Tesla’s Battery Day next week.

Electrek’s Take

This is a very interesting development. Those simple changes of having a much larger cell with a tabless design could alone result in a significant improvement in the performance of the cells.

Combine that with some potential material and chemical changes, and the overall performance improvements might be more than just incremental compared to Tesla’s current cells.

Now a new cell format also means new modules and new packs to accommodate the new cells.

There could be room for improvement here too, since Tesla will be going from thousands of cells per pack to potentially less than a thousand with this cell format.

Source: Electrek

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[TruckElectric]

The Million Mile battery?

 

[cyberhunter]

I'm eagerly anticipating what this might mean. If it is something like 20% to 40% increase in energy density, then range just increased significantly while reducing weight. I can't wait until next Tuesday.

 

[ldjessee]

Even if it was just 10 to 15% improvement, that would be huge, especially if the energy density at the pack level goes up due to more efficient packaging. It would also be interesting to see how these will be thermally managed...

 

[Cyberman]

F*&$ yeah

 

[SONNYDUT]

There is a bar code printed on the shell, wouldn't it say something about this battery if someone scan it? I can't wait for the Battery Day.

 

[CappyJax]

I would think its size would suggest they are going to make larger packs with lower power density, because a larger cell would be harder to cool. If the cell volumetric energy density isn't higher, the pack energy density is going to be lower because of the increase in space between the individual cells.

 

[Crissa]

To read a bar code you need to know the format, and even then it's just a number. QR codes can contain text, but it's unlikely to tell us much since it would be all references internal to Tesla.

SFX054 is hardly informative ^-^

-Crissa

 

[ldjessee]

If the battery chemistry does not produce as much heat during charge and discharge (something I thought was a feature of the tabless rolls?), then pack density would be higher, as you have more efficient packaging?

 

[fritter63]

If I were Elon, and had something like this but wanted to avoid tanking sales via the Osborne Effect, I would have delayed the announcement for about 6 months, so that I could ramp up production and start putting them in cars ahead of time, so that all older designs would have been delivered before the announcement, with even some people getting software limited versions of the new battery (or just use fewer batteries for the same range).

Then I would make the announcement, unlock the extra capacity for those lucky few, and everybody would be happy.

Just saying.....

 

[Cyber_Starship]

I remember reading an electrek article that cited anonymous sources connected to Tesla stating that whole new production lines were stealthily being built for the “palladium” S and X platforms. I’m only speculating but perhaps one reason that Elon decided to delay battery day until September after repeatedly pushing back the date in small increments, was to allow time to modify production lines to include the new roadrunner battery tech and plaid powertrain. That way Tesla can avoid the Osborne Effect and further shock the TSLA shorts on battery day.

It might be wishful thinking, but if plaid is launched this fall (perhaps soon after battery day), and these batteries are far enough along to be leaked to the media, I think there’s a chance Elon is getting ready to roll out the full package (plaid, roadrunner, and perhaps new platforms). He did tweet that “many exciting things will be unveiled.”

Here’s the article.

 

[TruckElectric]

 

[CappyJax]

If the battery chemistry does not produce as much heat during charge and discharge (something I thought was a feature of the tabless rolls?), then pack density would be higher, as you have more efficient packaging?

To which density are you referring?

 

[cyberhunter]

Even if the battery packs weren't in the current cars, my understanding is that the battery packs are easily swapped at a service center. That means if there is a noticeable Osborne effect, Tesla could conceivably offer some type of "swap out my battery pack" program on current in-stock vehicles. There are a lot of ways to get around the osborne effect via pricing or other sales programs. I'm eagerly anticipating Tuesday to see what is actually going on and how it might affect CT specs.

 

[Bigvbear]

If I were Elon, and had something like this but wanted to avoid tanking sales via the Osborne Effect, I would have delayed the announcement for about 6 months, so that I could ramp up production and start putting them in cars ahead of time, so that all older designs would have been delivered before the announcement, with even some people getting software limited versions of the new battery (or just use fewer batteries for the same range).

Then I would make the announcement, unlock the extra capacity for those lucky few, and everybody would be happy.

Just saying.....

There is actually a very easy way to Tesla to avoid the Osborne Effect.

Only offer the new cells in the CT, Roadster, and Semi. Leave the current cells in the current car models (IE S,3,X, and Y) which they can still purchase from Panasonic. Then when a redesign of those models comes into play, then put in the new cells. A great example of this is when the S was redesigned front end and added the new autopilot hardware.