New Battery Range & Pack Architecture [Announced at Battery Day]

[Dave.Me]

Me neither. Tho I do wonder if you guys up in the cold will want to wrap your trucks in a blanket (That's what the guys with Zeros do to keep them from freezing up).

-Crissa

We do have a garage at home & at our cottage. But, if we didn't I probably would. ? I do believe that by the time we get delivery, the range will have crept up even further. With a million mile battery of course. Already waiting for StarLink to go online, so we can stream movies etc, up at the cottage. If I spend any more money on Musk's toys & technology, the wife's going to tell me to just move in with him!

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[madquadbiker]

With the newly designed battery I suspect CT Dual motor may have a new range of 350 -375 miles. It will accomplish this on less cells that are more energy dense. Also fewer cell result in less weight which make CT a light lighter vehicle. The new battery design will help make CT stronger in it's unibody design with the new concept of battery tray. The charging times will decrease due to tabless battery design, plus I think CT will have more HP and faster 0-60 times.
The price will probably stay the same since the new technology is costly to implement.
I focused on dual motor since that is my reservation choice.
Now I really can't wait.

Will the weight saving because of the new batteries put the CT into a lower category of truck or goes the actual size influence that as well, what’s the estimated weight of the CT now.

 

[Dids]

Nice edit video for rewatch of presentation.

 

[JBee]

Will the weight saving because of the new batteries put the CT into a lower category of truck or goes the actual size influence that as well, what’s the estimated weight of the CT now.

It's highly likely that the new battery technology was already part of the original CT design and battery tech used. Baytery day was meant to be only a few months after CT release before covid. Therefore it's unlikely the new battery will change much of the CT design, performance, or weight and vehicle class. There is meant to be a Wolverine version though.

 

[Frank W]

Nice edit video for rewatch of presentation.

That was a great recap of the event. Thanks

 

[larryboy31]

They use the battery range as a way to drive sales to higher optioned models.

That is the old school way of building and selling vehicles. I expect better from Elon. The larger battery would cost several thousand dollars as an option and 30% of that would be profit. Elon could leave off the third motor and keep the resulting profit as well. There are a large number of potential buyers who don't want or need neck snapping acceleration but would like the extra range. A few less 3 motor CTs would be sold but quite a few more 2 motors. I have been looking at some potential trips and with the larger battery one could drive 300/350 miles and stop and get a meal and have a walk around while doing some level 2 charging. Then drive another 200 miles and get a motel for the night and charge some more. 500 miles a day with a reasonable margin left at the end of the day would make the CT long trip friendly with no compromise. The way range is increasing a 300 mile CT (less with a tired battery) might be harder to resell a few years down the road as well.

 

[JBee]

That is the old school way of building and selling vehicles. I expect better from Elon. The larger battery would cost several thousand dollars as an option and 30% of that would be profit. Elon could leave off the third motor and keep the resulting profit as well. There are a large number of potential buyers who don't want or need neck snapping acceleration but would like the extra range. A few less 3 motor CTs would be sold but quite a few more 2 motors. I have been looking at some potential trips and with the larger battery one could drive 300/350 miles and stop and get a meal and have a walk around while doing some level 2 charging. Then drive another 200 miles and get a motel for the night and charge some more. 500 miles a day with a reasonable margin left at the end of the day would make the CT long trip friendly with no compromise. The way range is increasing a 300 mile CT (less with a tired battery) might be harder to resell a few years down the road as well.

Most of the extra cost of a trimotor is in the batteries themselves not the extra electric motor in the back. No point in saving a couple of grand for the trimotor can offer extra towing capacity, better off road performance as well as better acceleration. Also the plaid trimotor is more efficient and is a part of the reason you get the better range.

 

[Luke42]

For anyone living in the northern states & Canada that is the normal tempature.

-30C is a little chilly for Illinois, but it happens from time to time.

There are a large number of potential buyers who don't want or need neck snapping acceleration but would like the extra range.

[Raises hand]

Our GMC Sierra is plenty fast for me. Our Honda Civic out-handles my desire for lateral G-forces and can go faster than I need to. Our children start to sound scared before I get anywhere close to my personal limits, much less the vehicle's limits.

I want the 500-mile range (for towing) and the solar panel option (for commuting). The 3rd motor is excessive (for my needs).

I don't really care how fast the CT is, just so long as it can keep up with the rather chill traffic we have out here in not-Chicago while towing a travel trailer. I'd happily trade the 3rd motor for something else of value (solar panels, FSD, bigger ePTO-inverter, or a discount).

But, if my stainless steel electric truck has to be super-fast, I'll get over it. However, spending money on the 3rd motor will likely reduce my budget for other add-ons (like FSD).

 

[TruckElectric]

Why do you want 750 miles from a single charge? No one drives that far without stopping. Wouldn't it be better to have a 500 mile pack that charges in 10 min?

750 mile range won't translate that in real world driving. Then if you are pulling a trailer and facing a headwind that 750 can drop to dramatically. I know this has been discussed here ad nauseam but I would like to have a 750 mile range. I do tend to practice overkill on some things and I want my BEV Truck to be more capable than what I may ever use it for.

 

[fritter63]

So, I didn't hang around for the questions after then presentation.

My main question is, what does the new architecture do for battery maintenance/repair? Say you got a cell or two that go bad? Can they be swapped out? Didn't sound like it. Is the battery module itself still replaceable?

Thanks.

 

[Crissa]

Currently there's no way to repair a bad cell, either. You have to swap out the entire pack.

They did think ahead to making the current packs easier to swap out, but it was expensive, heavy, and didn't happen to nearly all of the cars before the rest was coming apart.

They did not say if the new pack would be repairable; their details were slight. But we should see how it works soon as they're prototyping Ys with it and the ones from Berlin will have it.

-Crissa

 

[CybrTrkWdWk]

Part of the presentation was about the importance of recycling the batteries at the end of their useable life for a closed loop system where mining materials becomes much less important. This to me indicates the packs will be replaceable somehow even if structural. This is pure speculation on my part. Maybe instead he wants the whole car recycled at that point. It was very unclear. Also no mention of a "million mile" battery ?

 

[Crissa]

Part of the presentation was about the importance of recycling the batteries at the end of their useable life for a closed loop system where mining materials becomes much less important. This to me indicates the packs will be replaceable somehow even if structural. This is pure speculation on my part. Maybe instead he wants the whole car recycled at that point. It was very unclear. Also no mention of a "million mile" battery ?

No, I think you're right. And the diagram of how the cells were put into the frame I think indicated it may be possible to swap individual cells.

You can do battery swaps on e-bikes with stress-mounted packs. It's just a very extreme surgery to the vehicle.

-Crissa

 

[lancethibault]

Part of the presentation was about the importance of recycling the batteries at the end of their useable life for a closed loop system where mining materials becomes much less important. This to me indicates the packs will be replaceable somehow even if structural. This is pure speculation on my part. Maybe instead he wants the whole car recycled at that point. It was very unclear. Also no mention of a "million mile" battery ?

Agree...a large emphasis was put on recycling of the batteries , but I thought it was a bit odd that they didn't discuss how they would be able to do this with a "structural battery".

 

[Crissa]

The multiple motors doesn't just get you the acceleration, they're actually more efficient at speed and under a load.

Each motor is wound differently, which means each one has a different torque curve. And the vehicle can select the optimum efficiency for cruising and have added power (or heat sinking) as needed.

-Crissa