Batteries are the most important elements of a battery-powered or battery-oriented electric vehicle. Battery packs are analogous to the engine inside conventional vehicles better engine. The more stable performance of the electric vehicle depends on the performance of the battery. Elon Musk had declared on battery day last year that the new 4680 cell-based battery pack would be allowing five times more energy or six times more power and an increase in range by 16. Tesla new battery technology 4860 is explained in this article. Tesla’s insane new battery technology will change everything.
If we strictly follow Tesla’s past and current battery cells that have been used in their electric vehicles. The brain behind Tesla’s battery technology was JB Strabal. Strabal had a master’s degree in energy engineering from Stanford University. JB Strabal and Elon musk first met in 2003 for lunch. During the historic lunch, Strabal mentioned his ambitions to create a lithium-ion battery pack that could last for 1000 miles on a single charge.
Elon was so inspired by his ambitions and his genius that he later invited him to join his newly incorporated electric vehicle company Tesla motors. Strabal was the fifth employee at Tesla and named a co-founder at the company. He would spend 15 years as Tesla’s chief technology officer. Tesla owes a lot of its success to his genius and ingenuity. When he first joined got straight to work on designing the battery pack to be used by future Tesla vehicles.
His aim was simple, he wanted to give Tesla electric vehicles a longer range and be safe to handle and use. Hence, he came up with the 18650-lithium cell. This cell is called 18650-lithium because the 18650 cell is 18 millimeters in diameter and 65 millimeters in length in a 2006 paper written by Strabel. He reveals his 18650 designs started purposely selecting a small form factor battery set. Due to its tiny size, the cell contains a limited quantity of energy. If a failure occurs with this cell the outcome will be much less than that expected from a cell. It was released in 2008.
It began with a range of about 245 miles on an individual charge which totally blew away automakers all over the world. This kind of range was just unheard of in battery electric vehicles. Back then for the first time, a fully electric vehicle was posing serious competition to other automakers. But real-life performance tests also showed that its performance was analogous to that of many gasoline-powered sports cars. The roadster could accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in less than four seconds and could reach a top velocity of 125 miles per hour.
Tesla vehicles until the Tesla model 3 came out since then Tesla has been using the much larger 21 millimeters wide and 70 millimeters long at 2170 cells. Now Tesla is watching to shift to its most advanced 4680 cells. This was announced back by Elon musk at the battery day event. From the start, Elon Musk had impressive performance boast, during the presentation he announced the new upcoming 4680 cell-based battery pack.
This would be allowing five times more and energy six times more power and an increase in range by sixty. How do the 4680 cells try to live up to these numbers? Tesla has performed some interesting design choices. First, from the name you can tell the cell is larger than the previous two battery cells that Tesla has been using measuring at 46 millimeters in diameter and 18 millimeters in height. Tesla has decided to stick to their cylindrical cell profile this contrasts with another electric vehicle.
Automakers that use the rectangular cell pack but the 4680 is not just a larger version of the previous cells. Tesla has improved the internal structure of the cell. They used laser-pattern shingles inside the battery to make the smaller path for the electrons to travel to improve performance. So, even though you have a greater cell you have a battery with more power coming both in and out resulting in decreased charge time.
According to Tesla, this has reduced the electrical route by five times decrease in the electrical path. Energy movement per second is enhanced by five times this can tell Tesla boasting about five times more power than earlier cells. Another significant design selection of Tesla is using a tables cell design. The tabs in the cells are tiny metallic elements welded onto the electrodes. In fact, tab manufacturing for a cell is the most challenging part of cell manufacturing.
If something went wrong it can greatly affect the reliability and performance of the cell. Construction mistakes like welding burs can depart the anode and the cathode and end up causing a short circuit. So, tabs add an extra point of failure into the cell. What Tesla is trying to do with their tablet’s design for the 4680? They try to get the identical conventional tab functionality by adopting a conductive part that runs along the electrode by using this tablet’s design.
The highest distance that an electron should move is the height of the electrode rather than its length. As in the case of a conventional tapped electrode, the length of an electrode is only five to twenty percent of its length. Hence the ohmic resistance that the electrons face and consequently the heat that is internally generated will decrease significantly. Reduced ohmic resistance begins with another great advantage the cells will make less heat because of less resistance.
Additionally, another benefit is that the current is distributed consistently across the table’s electrode. This decreases the likelihood of local forming hot spots with big over potentials that can destroy the battery. We have discussed smaller electrical paths less heat generation and avoiding the complications of using a tab design. what does it all mean for the end consumer? The Tesla drivers worry less about the engineering ingenuity and more about the performance of their electric vehicles. Everything we’re hearing sounds like the 4680 will make Tesla vehicles a force to be reckoned with the new 4680 cells. This will develop the power-to-weight ratio of the cars streamline manufacturing processes and lower the cost to manufacture.
Greater power to weight ratio means quicker acceleration and more power available to the driver. The table’s design will allow Tesla to streamline its manufacturing process and decrease points of breakdown in the cell packs. This has added the advantage of reducing manufacturing expenses as well Tesla declares the battery pack along with other several new technologies. This could merge to decrease costs by almost 50 percent Tesla is assuming that these new batteries.
This will provide them with a 25,000-tesla vehicle. If Tesla can manage that it will go a long way toward making electric vehicles affordable and more convenient. No electronic car company can come near to this amount not with modern technology. Now Tesla is preparing to use the 4680-battery cell in their upcoming vehicles. The Tesla semi and the Tesla model y Tesla have been running a pilot factory for the new battery cell. Elon musk has been guiding reaching a production capacity of 10 gigawatts per hour by the end of 2021.
According to the second quarter, 2021 financial report shows that Tesla successfully validated the performance and lifetime of 4680 cells produced at the Cato facility in California. They are nearing the end of making validation at Cato field quality and yield are at viable levels. Now they focus on promoting the 10 percent of manufacturing processes that currently bottleneck production output while substantial progress has been made.
Tesla still has work ahead of us before they can produce a volume production internal crash testing of structural pack architecture. Once Tesla is successful at scaling their battery production at the Cato facility they are preparing to use high volume battery production at the Gigafactory in Texas. The new Gigafactory being built in Berlin Tesla is hoping to complete battery production goals of 100 gigawatts per hour by 2023 and 3000 gigawatts per hour by 2030. From the start, Tesla has differentiated itself from other electric vehicle manufacturers by their proprietary battery technology.
Tesla’s battery technology is one of the central reasons Tesla electric vehicles are so popular and to date. Tesla is the market leader in the electric vehicle sector. With the 4680 battery cells, Tesla is planning to stay ahead as more and more automakers enter the electric vehicle market.
