Can a Passing Comment Shine Some Light Into Tesla’s Future?

What is Ludacris about the whole thing is that Tesla’s CEO just mentioned in passing a technology that is helping Tesla lead the way in Electric Vehicle Range. During the July 17th conference call Elon Musk stated the following after mentioning that Tesla had used Silicon in the batteries Anode to increase the Model S’s Range: “It’s a baby step in the direction of using silicon in the anode, but we will be increasing its use.”

So again, Tesla is pushing ahead with technology in the right places. The Ludacris button was a new tweak to get the Model S into 0-60 in less than 3 seconds. 2.8 To be exact. So the key take away from the conference call might have been overlooked by the statement about the Silicon in the Anodes. Is it any wonder that Tesla has signed on Professor Jeff Dahn, from the University in Nova Scotia where he is a leading battery researcher. His contract is for five years with Tesla Motors.

What is truly interesting here is that Silicon traditionally has had loss issues even though it can store over 10 times more energy per weight unit than graphite which has been in use for some time now. How has Tesla solved the losses that others have experienced when using Silicon? With the 10 times higher energy storage capabilities you can see why they would want to use silicon but has it been tested long enough in trials or are the Model S owners the marketing research pool?

Additionally, since Tesla has stated that all of Tesla’s Patents are free to others now, does it include this seemingly brilliant discovery? Will he share this good news with Carlos Ghosn over at Nissan so that the next Nissan Leaf will have over 300 miles range? Oh wait, Carlos has already said that electric cars will have 300 mile plus range.

Electric Cars are still selling and the product life cycle curve still has EVs sitting in the early adopter segment however more and more and more will be coming to market and more and more main stream consumers will start to move away from gas and into electric vehicles.

Image Source: Alex Nevski