ICE vs FCV vs EV, page-589

Tesla's new batteries set to make EVs as cheap as petrol cars

Beijing | Electric car maker Tesla plans to introduce a new low-cost, long-life battery in its Model 3 sedan in China this year or early next year that it expects will bring the cost of electric vehicles in line with petrol models, and allow EV batteries to have second and third lives in the electric power grid (reports Reuters).

For months, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has been teasing investors, and rivals, with promises to reveal significant advances in battery technology during a "Battery Day" in late May.

New, low-cost batteries designed to last for a million miles (1.6 million kilometres) of use and enable electric Teslas to sell profitably for the same price or less than a gasoline vehicle are just part of Musk's agenda, people familiar with the plans told Reuters.

With a global fleet of more than 1 million electric vehicles that are capable of connecting to and sharing power with the grid, Tesla's goal is to achieve the status of a power company, competing with such traditional energy providers as Pacific Gas & Electric and Tokyo Electric Power, those sources said.

The new “million mile” battery at the centre of Tesla's strategy was jointly developed with China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and deploys technology developed by Tesla in collaboration with a team of academic battery experts recruited by Musk, three people familiar with the effort said.

Eventually, improved versions of the battery, with greater energy density and storage capacity and even lower cost, will be introduced in additional Tesla vehicles in other markets, including North America, the sources said.

Tesla’s plan to launch the new battery first in China and its broader strategy to reposition the company have not previously been reported. Tesla declined to comment.

Tesla's new batteries will rely on innovations such as low-cobalt and cobalt-free battery chemistries, and the use of chemical additives, materials and coatings that will reduce internal stress and enable batteries to store more energy for longer periods, sources said.

Tesla also plans to implement new high-speed, heavily automated battery manufacturing processes designed to reduce labour costs and increase production in massive “terafactories” about 30 times the size of the company’s sprawling Nevada “gigafactory” — a strategy telegraphed in late April to analysts by Musk.

Tesla is working on recycling and recovery of such expensive metals as nickel, cobalt and lithium, through its Redwood Materials affiliate, as well as new “second life” applications of electric vehicle batteries in grid storage systems, such as the one Tesla built in South Australia in 2017. The car maker also has said it wants to supply electricity to consumers and businesses, but has not provided details.

Reuters reported exclusively in February that Tesla was in advanced talks to use CATL’s lithium iron phosphate batteries, which use no cobalt, the most expensive metal in EV batteries.

CATL also has developed a simpler and less expensive way of packaging battery cells, called cell-to-pack, that eliminates the middle step of bundling cells. Tesla is expected to use the technology to help reduce battery weight and cost.

The sources said CATL also plans to supply Tesla in China next year with an improved long-life nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) battery whose cathode is 50 per cent nickel and only 20 per cent cobalt.

Tesla now jointly produces nickel-cobalt-aluminum (NCA) batteries with Panasonic at a “gigafactory” in Nevada, and buys NMC batteries from LG Chem in China. Panasonic declined to comment.

Taken together, the advances in battery technology, the strategy of expanding the ways in which EV batteries can be used and the manufacturing automation on a huge scale all aim at the same target:
Reworking the financial maths that until now have made buying an electric car more expensive for most consumers than sticking with carbon-emitting internal combustion vehicles.

“We've got to really make sure we get a very steep ramp in battery production and continue to improve the cost per kilowatt-hour of the batteries — this is very fundamental and extremely difficult,” Musk told investors in January. “We've got to scale battery production to crazy levels that people cannot even fathom today.”

Tesla has reported operating profits for three quarters in a row, driving a near-doubling of its share price this year. Still, Musk's ambitious expansion plans depend on increasing profit margins and sales volume.

A number of the technical advances made by Tesla and CATL in battery chemistry and design originated at a small research lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The lab has been run since 1996 by Jeff Dahn, a pioneer in the development of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and grid storage.

The cost of CATL's cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate battery packs has fallen below $US80 ($125) a kilowatt-hour, with the cost of the battery cells dropping below $US60/kWh, the sources said. CATL’s low-cobalt NMC battery packs are close to $US100/kWh.

Auto industry executives have said $US100/kWh for battery packs is the level at which electric vehicles reach rough parity with internal combustion competitors.

Battery expert Shirley Meng, a professor at the University of California San Diego, said NMC cells could cost as little as $US80/kWh once recycling and recovery of key materials such as cobalt and nickel is factored in. Iron phosphate batteries, which are safer than NMC, could find a second life in stationary grid storage systems, reducing the upfront cost of those batteries for electric vehicle buyers.

www.resourcesrisingstars.com.au/news-article/teslas-new-batteries-set-make-evs-cheap-petrol-cars


So the $64,000 Question still is and remains, but hopefully Not for much longer,

Where on Earth is ALL this Lithium going to come from to supply Yibin's / CATL / Tesla / Gigafactories / Terafactories in Future ?

Surely All EV Roads will lead to Manono one way or another sooner or later.


*To Remind

A global deal with CATL would become the second such agreement for Tesla after Panasonic, and would diversify risks associated with meeting battery demand which could slow production.

China's largest power battery maker CATL is ready to make deeper inroads into the European market with its Erfurt, Germany, plant.

The plant will produce both battery cells and modules for the region's partners.

CATL has partnered with BMW, Daimler, Volvo and Volkswagen to offer batteries for their electric vehicles.

"Europe is a key market for CATL, and many of our partners are based in Europe," said Matthias Zentgraf, president of CATL's European operations.

Musk flagged this at Tesla’s Q4 2019 earnings call in January, noting that in order to both ramp up Model Y production, introduce the Cybertruck and then have enough cells left over to launch the Semi electric truck, the solution was simply a LOT more batteries.

“So, the thing we’re going to be really focused on is increasing battery production capacity because that’s very fundamental” Musk said.

Tesla is ramping up battery capacity from multiple suppliers, as it plans to deliver 500,000 cars in 2020.

In its Q4 2019 conference call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the company was working with both CATL and LG Chem, in addition to Panasonic.

A couple of weeks ago, Reuters reported that Tesla is in “advanced stages of talks” to use batteries from CATL that contain no cobalt.

That would mark the first time for Tesla to include lithium iron phosphate batteries in its lineup, a step to reduce costs.


Worth a look if you have time imo,





More Food for thought

GLTA-AVZH's

Cheers

Frank

p.s- Have a Great /Safe Weekend