Tesla's New Battery Cell Could Reduce Costs by 56%

Tesla’s long-awaited “Battery Day” was a lot like its mercurial founder, Elon Musk – hyperbolic and possibly revolutionary.

The company’s latest extravaganza shed light on a new type of battery cell that could tip the automotive scale in favor of electric vehicles. Their new battery cell will supposedly enable a 56% total reduction in cost per kwh of the pack, with a five-fold energy increase and a 16% boost to range. The cheaper batteries, alone, could make EVs more viable than their gas-powered cousins (batteries are often the priciest part of EVs), with the added benefit of taking a huge chunk out of our collective “range anxiety.”

How will Tesla accomplish all that? According to CNET, while Tesla’s "biscuit tin" 4680 battery cell shares the cylindrical design of the 2470 cells it purchases from suppliers, it forgoes the tabs “that act as the positive and negative connection points between the anode and cathode and the battery casing.”

Amongst other things, this eliminates the start/stop process required for the tabs, and Tesla also plans on swapping graphite for silicon with the cathode.

And of course, this wouldn’t be a Tesla event without a bold Elon Musk prediction – “About 3 years from now, we’re confident we can make a very compelling $25,000 electric vehicle that’s also fully autonomous.”

Granted, this is the same guy who said we should colonize Mars by nuking its poles – with 10,000 nuclear weapons – but like many of Elon’s idea, this is just crazy enough to work.

Check out further coverage of “Battery Day” here.