In 2020, Elon Musk devoted an entire presentation to talking about the advanced 4680 battery cells, promising at that time to establish their mass production by the end of 2023. Such cells are produced by the company in small batches, but if the technological problems are not resolved by the end of this year, Tesla may abandon further expansion of production.
Image source: Tesla
Strictly speaking, Tesla initially expected to launch mass production of 4680 battery cells in the United States by the end of 2022. They are currently being produced in small batches in Texas, but in 2023 the company was forced to abandon the idea of producing them at its plant in Berlin. As noted earlier, Tesla had problems with the production of anodes for such batteries using the “dry” method, which promised to significantly reduce the cost of production and make it more environmentally friendly. In June 2023, Tesla announced that it had managed to produce a total of 10 million 4680 cells. However, this is still a long way from the target quantities, although this year Tesla representatives have repeatedly emphasized that the production of Cybertruck electric pickups is not limited to the availability of traction batteries based on 4680 cells.
In any case, The Information reported this week, citing sources close to Tesla, that Elon Musk has tasked the company’s specialists with producing 4680-type battery cells in significantly larger quantities by the end of this year. If this fails, Tesla may abandon their own production altogether. Currently, this type of cell is used not only in Cybertruck pickups, but also in Model Y crossovers assembled in Texas. Tesla initially planned to use 4680 cells in the production of Semi trucks, but they are now being manufactured without them, and are only being produced in single copies.
The company can also receive 4680-size cells from its partners like Panasonic, so even if the Texas plant refuses to produce them on its own, nothing catastrophic will happen in terms of the company’s ability to produce Cybertruck pickups. According to informed sources, the problem for Tesla is the transition to a “dry” method of producing cathodes. In the case of the anode, it has already been mastered, but in terms of production costs, it is more important to master a similar method of producing cathodes, and so far it has not been possible to solve this problem. Tesla inherited this technology from Maxwell Technology, a company it acquired, but its implementation in mass production is still problematic. According to The Information, some 4680-size battery cells can suddenly fail during operation.
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Source: 3dnews.ru
