New Panasonic Batteries Give Tesla a Boost

Two of the factors that most affect the pick-up of electric vehicles are range anxiety and cost. While countries and manufacturers are doing all they can to promote the installation of an infrastructure to cope with the change to electric power, the cost issue hasn’t gone away. Although the price of batteries has decreased, many potential EV owners believe that EV batteries have a short shelf life and will need to be replaced in a decade or so at a cost not far from the current worth of the vehicle. The truth in this is doubtful, and current real world data from Tesla shows battery degradation is under 10% after 160,000 miles. To further reassure its customers, the company has also updated its warranty to cover all of its vehicles to 70% capacity for up to 8 years or 100,000/150,000 miles, dependant on the model. Still, the fear of the cost of a complete battery replacement has not gone away.

Recently, Tesla also announced that it would start testing a new size of battery next year. The 4680 batteries have a diameter of 46mm and a height of 80mm, which offers around 5 times the capacity of the 1865 batteries used in the original Tesla cars. They will also provide 6 times the power and an extra 16% on to the range of EVs. The new battery size is thought to be especially targetted at the upcoming NEW Tesla models, which include the Cybertruck and the Tesla semi. The 4680 batteries would be a great fit for both these models, since they are physically large and will have higher power requirements than other models. The reduced costs of the batteries would also go a long way to keep the sale price of the Cybertruck under control.

Now, the first of Tesla’s battery partners has unveiled a new 4680 battery prototype. Panasonic says that it will begin 4680 test production by March 2022 in Japan. Although the new Panasonic batteries do not use the cheaper Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) chemistry, they are still expected to be a much cheaper solution overall, and have been estimated to be 40% less expensive to manufacture. The new 4680 batteries will likely use Panasonic’s existing nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA) chemistry. Tesla will still use LFP batteries for its cheaper models, and it is expected that they will source these batteries from Chinese suppliers. As well as being cheaper, LFP batteries are considered to be safer than nickel-based batteries, but have a lower energy density. Several of Tesla’s other battery partners are also expected to be working on the new battery format, we should hear news from them sooner rather than later.

Overall, this seems good news for the industry. If the fear that the batteries will need replacement every ten years won’t go away, at least bring the cost of that replacement down to a more reasonable level will alleviate some of that fear.