4680 Battery Update
On April 19th, Tesla released their first Quarter 2023 financial results - and while the numbers show that Tesla is doing well so far this year - the real meat of this financial report was the company’s plans for their 4680 battery cell.
Drew Baglino - Tesla’s senior VP of Engineering - took the opportunity to give some major details on the 4680 roadmap - which extends into 2026 - as well as info on production rates, a time frame for the construction of the company’s new lithium refining plant and cathode production lines, and hints at an entirely new version of the battery.
The 4680 cell was announced at the 2020 Battery Day event. The 46mm x 80mm lithium-ion cell represented a huge leap in capability over Tesla’s previous workhorse - the 2170 cell which is currently used in the Model 3 and some Model Y variants. When the battery was presented, the 4680 boasted an energy increase of 5x, and a power increase of 6x more than the 2170.
The roadmap presented five areas of effort that Baglino reports are seeing progress. Cell design, anode and cathode materials, the structural battery pack, and the cell factory, are all either continuing to improve at a good pace, or are about to begin some crucial work.
In terms of production, Baglino reports that the company increased production of the 4680 battery by 50% since last quarter - and that’s just in Texas, where Tesla has an operational production line at their Austin Gigafactory - and have been working hard to expand it.
Currently, the 4680 is being produced at their pilot plant in Fremont, California and at the slowly expanding production lines at GigaTexas - but Tesla has been making slow moves to set up further production in other facilities like Giga Berlin.
Baglino says that priority one for their battery program is to get the 4680 production ramped up ahead of Cybertruck production - which is due to begin in earnest sometime next year.
And to help with that, Tesla is about to start constructing their own Lithium refinery. Tesla has been trying to get their foot in the door of Lithium refining for a couple of years now, and in November 2022, news leaked that the company was headed into private negotiations with the local government of Corpus Christi, Texas.
Baglino gives us a huge update on that facility during the conference call - confirming that the facility will break ground in May this year - and will likely start work by the end of 2023, in part at least, depending on which portions of the facility get finished first.
This facility is a big deal, not only because it will be the first of its kind in North America - but also because the sulfate-free refining process uses less energy, has no acids or caustic reactive materials, and is cheaper as a result of these things. The process even makes a byproduct that can be re-purposed into construction materials - it’s really going to be something to see in action.
But it’s not the only battery production infrastructure that Tesla is developing. Back in February 2022, the company applied to extend the Austin Gigafactory with a new building which was intended to house a Cathode production area.
Again, Baglino gives us a great update on how that project is going, saying,
“[...] we are 50% equipment and 75% utilities installed at our new cathode building in Austin,”
He goes on to mention that the company hopes to begin using finished parts of the production line by this quarter, and to be fully producing material before the end of the year.
When Tesla unveiled the 4680 cell during the 2020 Battery Day event, they spoke briefly about their newly acquired cathode tech and how much more efficient it was - and while Tesla works with companies like Panasonic and CATL to help them round out the numbers for their battery needs, this sort of progress brings them closer to simply not needing to outsource so much.
Which is great news because the Structural Battery pack currently in use by Tesla’s Model Y is very important to the design of future vehicles.
Baglino spoke mostly on what the Structural Pack team’s focus was this year - namely streamlining production times and material costs so that the pack was more likely to be used in other vehicles - because that’s absolutely what Tesla wants.
The Structural Battery Pack was introduced alongside the Model Y, and swapped Tesla’s usual “Skateboard”-style housing under the chassis floor - to being a part of the chassis itself. At least for Model Ys made in the US.
Many industry experts and Tesla users have been thinking that at the very least the new Cybertruck will make use of this new system - and Baglino seems to confirm that when he mentions that the goal for 4680 production is to be ramped up ahead of Cybertruck production. That certainly implies that the two are connected.
But with all the talk lately about vehicle redesigns like the Model 3 Project Highland - and discussions about a new generation of Tesla vehicle to be built at the upcoming GigaMexico facility - it’s hard not to think that the Structural Battery Pack might be making an appearance in the designs of more vehicles over the course of the next year or so.
And that leads to one last bit of news dropped on us by Baglino during his call - a new version of the 4680.
Earlier while discussing the Corpus Christi refinery, Baglino says,
“[...] We’re in production with not only the first generation tabless cell we unveiled on Battery Day but a second more manufacturable version in Texas today.”
Unfortunately, not a whole lot else was said about it, but that’s an interesting thing to confirm during a financial update.
Now, we’ve just been talking about the cathode changes, and new manufacturing procedures Tesla is rolling out this year - so this bit about a “more manufacturable version” of the 4680 could just be referring to the company sharpening up their production to the point where the battery is built quicker and cheaper.
That makes sense, after all the company has been making big changes to other areas of their production techniques - the new manufacturing concepts of the Model 3 they unveiled during the March 1st Investors Day event is a good example.
Tesla has started talking about making use of Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries in the future - using cheaper materials that can be recycled. Previously, the lower energy density of LFP batteries wasn’t worth it, but recent advancements in their chemistry have allowed them to hold more power, and so last year Tesla made the decision to switch - and very quickly updated their standard-range vehicles to LFP cells.
As the difference is mostly down to what materials are used for the Cathode, it makes sense that Tesla might be attempting to use this new tech to make new versions of their denser 4680 cell. If that can be done, that would be yet another range-boost to their cheaper vehicles.
Drew Baglino is an engineer, and so most of his update focused on the hard numbers - but it’s not difficult to see a pattern in what he was discussing. The 4680 is incredibly important to Tesla’s upcoming production roll-outs. They have several new facilities based around supporting the battery’s production, and they have more than one vehicle platform using - or preparing to use - the structural battery pack that relies on that cell.
Even their partners Panasonic and CATL are planning new factories to help supply Tesla with the amount of batteries they’re going to need. Tesla’s new vehicles might be taking the spotlight, but make no mistake - this year is all about the 4680.