Tesla Will Also Use Local China Batteries

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Tesla is in advanced stages of talks to use batteries without cobalt from CATL [Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd ]. Cobalt is one of the most expensive metals in electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries have lower energy density than current Tesla batteries. However, Tesla and CATL are working on removing the modules from batteries. The battery cells would be in packs without modules. Removing modules would save 16-20% of the space in battery packs.

The CATL LFP batteries would be good enough for a local China built short-range Tesla Model 3 and cut the costs for those cars.

If Tesla is able to remove cobalt from its batteries this would save $300-600 for each car.

SOURCES- Hyperchange, Simon Moores, Reuters
Written by Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com

8 thoughts on “Tesla Will Also Use Local China Batteries”

  1. the relevant metric is the full size/weight of the
    tank+engine+transmission
    and you need to correct the numbers with power at the wheeld /engine and transmission efficiencies/
    electric engines are _a lot_ more efficient

  2. So… what does this mean in terms of free energy for your EV?

    A cubic metre at 500 kg would occupy about the same sort of size as a current electric car battery. This gives you 24 kW.h per day, which should keep an normal electric car recharged, providing you aren’t driving across the country today.

    (I assume you’ll need a little electric fan to blow fresh air through the system, but that will be a trivial power drain.)

    So, you can probably get a cybertruck, and by losing part of the load bed capacity you never need recharge it at all.

    Woohoo?
    Energy issues solved for ever??
    Suck it Saudi Arabia???

    Well… there are of course some downsides.

    First of all, as always: Providing this story pans out with replicable results and no horrible unsaid complications.

    Second: The energy has to come from somewhere, it’s distributed through the air in the form of ionized water molecules. Once more than a couple of electric cars on the street are using this system, the air will be drained of said ions and won’t be able to recharge at a higher rate than the energy entering the system from wind and sunshine. At a very low efficiency.

    Third: It scales brilliantly for things like watches.
    For laptops though a it’s a bit heavy. If a laptop needs say 50W continuous power, then that works out to be maybe 25 kg of air-gen material plus housings, fans etc.
    For a commercial power station? That’s 500 thousand tonnes of plates per GW. Plus de-energizing the whole region

  3. As usual, it’s not simple to find any story on it that is written for adults. They are all superficial press releases that don’t provide any details.

    There is a nature article. One sci-hub later…

    OK… that was a bit difficult for me to follow, but what I think is going on is that
    — Ambient humidity typically has ionized water molecules, said ionization generated from energy in air movement and stuff (wind). And maybe from sunlight.
    — When the humidity comes in contact with the protein wires arranged in a careful configuration, the water molecules can transfer their ionized charge to the wires in such a way that this leads to micro current flow.
    — Current flow is collected into metallic wires in much the same way as for solar cells, letting you hook it up to provide useful power.

    Most usefully:

    — The humidity keeps transferring ions to the wires, allowing the system to run for at least months experimentally, and in theory indefinitely.
    — They mention putting the system in layers, with a density unstated but probably around 500 kg/cubic metre. Said cubic metre being able to supply 1 kW of continuous power as long as it has a fresh supply of humid air, where just about everywhere on Earth is sufficiently humid.

  4. You do need to adjust for an IC engine-transmission being maybe 20-25% efficient at best, compared with an electric system pushing 90%.

    So multiply the energy density of hydrocarbons by 20/90 to get a fair comparison.

    Even so, the fuel system works out much lighter for any reasonable range. And a fuel tank is orders of magnitude cheaper than a battery pack.

    But the next question is: how much does the extra weight actually affect the vehicle?

  6. … And I thought that the Maxwell battery has already solved all the problems in the world and would have allowed Tesla to be the only company on this planet.

  7. As long as the Chinese consumers are ok with lower range, locally built Model 3s hosting locally made, then whatever floats their boat.

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