In an interview with the head of Panasonic in North America, expansion plans for Tesla Gigafactory 1 battery production are revealed.
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In exactly two weeks, a major event that will change Tesla as a company will occur. It will announce a radical redesign to its Model Y, and bring to market a new kind of battery that is expected to massively outpace current batteries from the company.
This is the long-awaited Battery Day. Ahead of this, we have received information that one of Tesla's long time battery suppliers, Panasonic, will be adding a production line to the Gigafactory in Nevada.
A New Production Line
At the moment, Giga Nevada has thirteen production lines, the upcoming battery making line will be the fourteenth, enabling Tesla to significantly increase the amount of produced energy storage solutions, whether it is for vehicles or Powerwalls.
The addition to the factory is expected to cost around a hundred million dollars, an expensive price, but it is worth it if you consider the current growth in demand for electric vehicles and batteries in general.
The expansion will also bring renewed production equipment to existing production lines so that the old battery making machines can be replaced and that Panasonic can bring its new cells to market. This really shows Tesla's constant search for improvement and making their products better.
In addition, this will create a hundred new job postings at Gigafactory 1.
What matters in terms of battery improvements to Tesla is mostly achieving higher energy density and making batteries cheaper. Tesla has often stated the goal to reduce the price of its batteries to under a hundred dollars per kilowatt-hour, this is something that could be announced on September 22nd, at Battery Day.
The capacity of total battery production at Giga Nevada is supposed to increase around 10% according to the Panasonic North America head who released the information about this expansion. In terms of the new Panasonic battery improvements, its energy density will receive a five percent increase.
The price per kWh was not revealed so it may factor in as one of the major battery day announcements, hopefully being a lot lower than $100/kWh.
We do not know for certain that this news has anything to do with Battery Day, even if it seems likely that it does.
Although some information about the event has come to light, it is very much shrouded in mystery and knowing Tesla we can expect to be surprised about the news. What do you think could be announced in two weeks? Will it be an energy density improvement? Or could it be a cobalt-free battery? Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the comments, thank you for reading.
Here is a link to another story about batteries: Tesla Begins Battery Recycling In China. Also watch Torque News Tesla reporter Paul Fosse's latest report, discussing why Tesla service needs improvement to meet mainstream buyers' expectations.
See our Youtube Video linked above.
Guillaume Humbert a Torque News automotive journalist covering Tesla news. "The way he first heard about Tesla was when he accidentally found a livestream of one of Tesla's cars back in 2018. It may sound boring, except this car was cruising in space. Since then Humbert has been following the EV automaker closely. Any of Tesla's innovations make the future look environmentally more friendly. "I am now trying to share the hope Tesla spread and inspire others through my articles," says Humbert whom you can follow on Twitter at Thinking Enthusiast.
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