Thread by @KawasakiKR11

A former Sanyo/Pana battery engineer, who was on the team that developed 18650 for Tesla, was interviewed by a Tesla fanboy/BEVangelist about the Battery Day.

TL;DR: Nothing ground-breaking. All are minor improvements IF they can work them out.

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I might get around to summarizing the key points later. Meanwhile, here's the link. The guy is a Tesla owner & a bit of a fanboy himself, but I find his engineer's perspective interesting. Quite different from what lab scientists have said.

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blog.evsmart.net/tesla/battery-…

Before I get started, the summary by the interviewer says a lot. He likens what Tesla is trying to do to their attempt at "kaizen". Nothing radical.

Here we go.

1. cylindrical: A surprise. No advantage over others. Maybe being tabless will help w/ cooling.
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2. tabless: Old tech used since NiCd days. Pana's HEV cells use it. Benefit questionable for BEVs. Concern over low yield in practice.

3. dry coating: seems semi-wet. Nothing new. Has been used for primary Li cells for 3 decades. Could help IF it works.
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4. anode material: Problems w/ Si is well-known. No idea if they solved them.

5. cathode material: seems to be something developed ~2000. May improve energy density a bit via higher voltage. Maybe the same as the one recently announced by Top Battery of S.Korea.
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6. recycling: importance of recycling is something he & others have been talking about for a long time.🤷

7. cell-vehicle integration: space/structural efficiency gain possible, but battery will not be replaceable.

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8. overall: not unrealistic, but won't be easy. They may be able to reduce CapEx IF they can make them work. They'll likely encounter the same practical issues that Pana did at Nevada, including the lack of skilled workforce. A lot depends on prod. equipment suppliers.
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My impression is that, for him, it was full of unproven ideas that may each help a little IF they work. Nothing new. So many IFs & MAYBEs. He seems to assume Tesla can't commercialize this w/o tons of help from others.

/fin
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