Tesla executives, led by CEO Elon Musk, on Tuesday defined a series of competitive plans for battery production costs, which say they will allow Tesla to market a $25,000 battery electric vehicle within 3 years.
These are two of the main issues that arose since Company Battery Day, a demo consultation after their annual meeting. During the three-hour event, which aired live from a site at Tesla’s meetinghouse in Fremont, California, Musk and other executives detailed how they planned to reduce battery charging, the largest and most expensive component of an electric vehicle, by 56%. They then revealed a variety of new product systems to be introduced in the coming years.
“Battery hardware is obviously revolutionary and for Tesla’s goal,” Musk said, “accelerating the [transition] to sustainable energy. “
Battery prices have fallen particularly over the past decade, from about $1,000 consistent with kilowatt hours in 2010 to less than $150 today, according to a study conducted by analysts from Boston Consulting Group, AlixPartners and others. For their part, few brands will talk about concrete. Figures, that battery charging is a state secret for the car.
The downward curve has been “flattened,” Musk said, and he’ll want significant advances to go even lower. According to many existing estimates, the figure will have to succeed at approximately $70 consistent with kilowatt hours before electric battery cars, or BEVs, are successful. In fact, competitive with cars that use internal combustion engines. For a vehicle like a long-range Tesla Model S, with a hundred kWh battery, the savings would be about $7,000 compared to the vehicle.
To do this, said Drew Baglino, senior vice president of Tesla Powertrain and Energy Engineering, the company is reinventing virtually every detail of the production process, borrowing concepts in components of the bottling industry, which manages its production lines smoothly and continuously. one bottle at a time.
The adjustments Tesla says are coming start with fundamental chemistry reviews. Its next-generation batteries will eliminate expensive cobalt and depend on iron and nickel formulations, while your cathodes will be transferred from graphite to silicon. The batteries will be a little bigger, Baglino said. But more importantly, they will use new production methods, such as the application of dry powders, rather than liquid mud, in films wrapped in internal lithium-ion batteries.
Tesla believes that the procedure will allow you to greatly reduce the life of long-term battery plants and many production steps. In the area that has lately been used to produce 150 gigawatts of batteries, Musk said, the company hopes to produce a terawatt, a building. up to almost 700%, even reducing your investment.
Not only will batteries be cheaper, but they will also have more power (“power density” in EV language, Tesla said). This would result in a two-digit build-up in diversity or the desire to use fewer batteries in vehicles. which would increase its cost.
This would allow Tesla to produce a car that could be within the success of mass market buyers, and Musk announced, “We are confident that we can manufacture a compelling $25,000 electric vehicle that is also completely autonomous. “
He warned that the product can also hit the market in about 3 years, when Tesla plans to fully increase production of its next-generation batteries, limited production would likely start in about 18 months.
However, if Tesla can meet, it’s a big question. The automaker did not meet its production and value targets. Actually, he never delivered the $35,000 fundamental edition of the Model S sedán he had long promised. And while Musk set his goal of shooting on Tuesday. With almost entirely hands-free editing of the company’s autopilot system, it’s also far behind.
Although Tesla has not yet shown that it can succeed with cheap electric vehicles, it has had no challenge in locating tactics to launch niche editions of existing products. Next year, that will come with the Plaid Model S, the toughest edition to date of its flagship sedán, he said.
Originally called Maximum Plaid, a hard-to-understand reference to the film “Spaceballs,” the sedán will supply more than 1,000 horsepower and enter 0 to 60 in less than 2 seconds, Musk said. It will offer an equally impressive price. , $145,000, in line with comparable excessive machines from BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
Musk alluded to a third new product, a reduced edition of the upcoming Cybertruck van designed for foreign markets. The initial truck, which will basically go to the United States, has already generated at least 600,000 advance bookings, Musk said, adding. , “We’ve stopped counting. “
The long presentation through Musk and other Tesla executives did not address several things that were expected. It was not mentioned that the batteries lasted 1 million kilometers, which Musk had caused in the past: the new generation is expected to last longer than today’s batteries. Meanwhile, the charging time factor, a transparent impediment to widespread acceptance of electric vehicles, has been largely ignored.
Wall Street investors were not impressed. Tesla’s inventory fell in the early hours of Tuesday when Musk revealed that the new generation of batteries is still in years. Shares fell by almost 7% in off-hours trades.
A transparent fear is that competition is running to achieve similar goals. General Motors, in a rare move, revealed that he paid about $145 consistent with kilowatt hours for the batteries of his Chevrolet Bolt EV, but said he hoped to succeed at $100 when the Ultium battery plant in Ohio will be introduced next year. Executive Director Mary Barra and other officials have hinted at long-term plans that could reduce it to about $70.
Meanwhile, a new competitor, Lucid, says his Air sedán, an option for the Model S, will succeed in a diversity of up to 530 miles next year, approximately 30% more than the high-diversity Model S, with only 10% more. Battery.