Tesla has been producing electric vehicles for nearly two decades now. And since they started doing this they have been struggling to find the batteries they need.
People thought they were crazy using normal Lithium-ion batteries from the likes of computers and then stacking them in modules to make up their battery packs.
Tesla And Panasonic
Making batteries is a complicated ball hame, so Tesla enlisted the help of Panasonic to help them produce enough batteries for their vehicles. This also lead to the creation of the first Gigafactory in Nevada, to produce the largest volume of Lithium batteries in the world. At that time.
Tesla has expanded the capacity over time in Giga Nevada, but eventually, they outgrew it!
Tesla And Other Battery Suppliers
Since that time, Tesla’s electric vehicle and stationary storage production has increased dramatically! So, they have had to sign contracts with a number of other battery suppliers.
Tesla now has battery contracts with CATL in China, LG in South Korea and even have Panasonic working on production for more batteries outside of Giga Nevada.
But what about Tesla producing batteries themselves?
Tesla Starts Producing Batteries
On September 22nd, 2020, Tesla had a long-awaited presentation about batteries called – Battery Day.
During this presentation, Tesla presented a path to reducing the cost of batteries by 50% in the coming years. This was done in order to continue with their mission of accelerating the adoption of sustainable energy.
They showed us a new form factor for their batteries called the 4680 as well as a range of other innovations such as tabless batteries, dry electrodes, a more efficient cathode plant and structural changes to the vehicle.
The biggest revelation was that Tesla has already created a pilot production line in Freemont, on Kato Road, which was to be the precursor to their own battery production lines for the upcoming Gigafactories in Texas and Berlin!
As of today, the Kato Road battery production line is creating batteries that are being tested in a range of Tesla products.
And, it is expected that the first production Model Y vehicles coming out of Austin, Texas will have the majority of the technologies they talked about in battery day:
- structural battery packs
- new 4680 batteries
- dry electrodes
And it appears they are in the process of making the first cathode plant in Austin as well!
