Tesla is an American Based leading electric vehicle-making company which was founded in 2003. And currently, Mr. Elon Musk is the CEO of this company. Tesla was the first company which is being very successful in making the Electric Car and other vehicles. The main reason behinds this is to its leading innovations in technology and it never scared of failures.
As from staring at its age it always tries to improve his technology, visions irrespective of time and money. This is a company that always tries to archive is a vision in a very good manner.
Tesla Battery Day: An Innovative Idea which changes the future
Tesla organizes a shareholder’s meeting in October 2020. The biggest shareholder of Tesla company attends this “Battery Day Event”. This meeting organized on 22 September 2020 in Fremont, California, USA. So due to Covid-19 this meeting held by all coming people stay in his/ her car and the presentation was delivered the same manner. This is a very unique type of presentation that was held by Tesla.
In the presentation, they discussed many topics and try to resolve all milestones which are coming in front of the Tesla company.
1. Design
They discuss the problem in the design of the current battery which they are using in electric cars and try to improve the design of the battery.
The first major problem with Tesla is that they purchase batteries from other battery making companies like LG, Panasonic, etc. But these company unable to fulfill the whole requirement of Tesla. So Tesla’s production had been stopped due to a shortage of batteries. So they come to this point that they will start the production of Batteries for his own requirement. In this, they make a vision speedup his production of batteries.
As we know bigger cells are better than the small size of the cell so Tesla tries to increase the size of the cell in his battery.
We use AA batteries in clocks and small appliances, and then 18650 to 2170 other batteries are used in laptops, cameras, etc. Now Tesla using 2170 batteries for his production of electrics cars.
But now Tesla thinking to go for a bit bigger battery than 2170 and thought to make his upcoming cells of size 8046 (80x46mm). So this is the precise level of size of the cell so if we increase more cell size then it shows negative effects.
| New Folding Structure of Tesla Battery Image Source: TechCrunch |
They also change the packing structure of Anode and Cathode and try to reduce the path length which an electron cover inside a battery. After this, they reduce the heating effect and lowers the internal resistance of the cell. This is a very innovative way to increase the efficiency of any battery. This is a “tabless battery” design.
2. Process
Tesla’s many milestones are fails due to the cells. Because they import cells from other companies and many times these companies are unable to fulfill the requirements.
Recently Tesla acquired Maxwell Technologies which famous for supercapacitors. And Maxwell Tech has a unique patient of Dry Battery Electrode. Tesla now going to use this technology for the production of Batteries. This is a very big idea which is tested in Lab and Elon Musk will be going to implement this technology in the real world.
| Image Source: maxwell.com |
In Today’s technology, we make the anode-cathode by first making liquid gel and coating on anode-cathode and then we try it. This process is so complicated and needs more time to develop a cell.
But Maxwell has a dry process to make anode-cathode in very less time, they use powder to film technique.
With this process, it saves many steps and time and much cheaper than the previous one.
3. Material
Tesla changed the materials used in batteries. They used those materials which are available in bulk, cheaper. It now uses Raw Silicon with an ion-conducting polymer which acts as Anode. Because Silicon will expand so much in batteries so here this polymer help to control damages.
Tesla removes the cobalt and will not use it because it is harmful. So for the making of the cathode, they will use Nickel with some novel coating. By doing such coating on the Nickel it works almost like cobalt and gives much battery life too.
So they plan to make 3 types of batteries, these are “tesla’s own battery”:
- Ni-Silicon: Moderate level performance, for cars, etc.
- Ni-Mg: High-end performance, may use for trucks, etc.
- Li-Iron: For Cheapest Entry-level car
For the mining of these materials, they have a large area for mining these materials and have a huge amount of material which is sufficient for the electrification of whole America’s Vehicles.
They will use complete vertical integration for mining i.e. first they extract soil and then extract elements from soil and after soil put back there.
This all material extract from North America itself and they will not import it from any other country so in this they also save transportation money. So per cell price will also be decreased.
4. Recycling
As now as today Tesla doesn’t recycle his products unless there a third-party company which do so because there are very few products that are begin fully damaged and begin to be recycled because they estimate any Tesla Vehicle needs at least 25 years to be recycled. So from 2003 it almost going towards the 25th year.
Now Tesla starts to recycle their old products and extract all important components and use them for the new product. Because recycling the elements is very much efficient than extracting ore from the earth.
| Source: LinkedIn |
Tesla desired that after 25 years they will be entered in “steady-state” which means after that they recycle product one side and they have no need for mining.
5. Future
We can say that journey is started now. The real race is being started in the manufacturing of cars. If even they achieve his goal up to 50% they become leading in all vehicle companies. And the future is also of Electric Vehicle because it is a long-run solution to all problems which is happening today like the limitation of nonrenewable resources, environmental pollution, etc.
Tesla is first which is going to design his own battery that any other company doesn’t think anything about this. So there is the very biggest opportunity for Tesla to archive his goal. Tesla claimed that in 3-4 years they come with a budget Electric Car around $25,000 in the market, so a normal middle man can afford it.
Thanks!!
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Excellent write-up