Tesla CEO Elon Musk will announce a ‘million-mile battery’ at the company’s live-streamed ‘Battery Day’ due later today.
The mega battery will power upcoming Tesla electric vehicles, including the heavy-duty Semi truck and the futuristic Cybertruck, for at least one million miles.
Million-mile batteries are able to clock up over a million miles over the course of their lifespan – rather than powering a car for a single million-mile-journey without recharging.
The million-mile battery, which is hoped to increase take-up of Tesla electric cars, is expected to be revealed along with other ‘exciting things’ today, Musk has teased.
It’s speculated that these announcements include ways to pack more energy into battery cells, slash production costs and dramatically extend battery life.
Battery Day will be streamed live from 1:30 PM Pacific Time (9:30pm BST) on the Tesla website.
Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk said what is announced today will not reach serious high-volume production until 2022 – expected to be a million-mile battery
Tesla’s reveal today will ‘affect the Semi, Cybertruck and Roadster’ – three upcoming vehicles that the firm are racing to finish production on.
Musk said in a tweet that the battery improvements to be unveiled will not be in high-volume production until 2022.
‘Important note about Tesla Battery Day unveil tomorrow,’ said Musk in a tweet early on Tuesday.
‘This affects long-term production, especially Semi, Cybertruck & Roadster, but what we announce will not reach serious high-volume production until 2022.’
In a tweet earlier this month, Musk said ‘many exciting things will be unveiled on Battery Day’.
Tesla wants to take over the production of its batteries according to an earlier report from CNBC – replacing those made by Panasonic
Analysts are expecting Musk to announce long-rumoured plans for Tesla to produce its own battery cells, as it seeks to cement its lead over rivals like General Motors and Volkswagen.
Lithium-ion batteries for Tesla models are currently made by Panasonic at the electric vehicle company’s ‘gigafactory’ in Nevada.
But Tesla wants to begin manufacturing batteries itself and is working to produce new, bigger cells at its Fremont facility in California, Reuters reports.
The company is focusing its efforts on making lithium ion batteries with a goal of eventually being able to produce them in high volumes.
The new cells will reportedly have a diameter of 16.6 inches, versus the 0.8-inch ones made at its joint battery factory with Panasonic that are used in Tesla Model 3 vehicles.
Tesla’s reveal today will ‘affect the Semi, Cybertruck and Roadster’ (pictured) – three upcoming vehicles that the firm are racing to finish production on
Tesla also plans to build its own battery research and manufacturing facility in Fremont, California, government documents revealed in June, under a project dubbed ‘Roadrunner.
Tesla, which currently has a ‘small-scale’ battery manufacturing operation in Fremont, applied for city government approval to build an expanded battery operation, Reuters reported.
Some experts believe announcements made today could take years to be put into operation by the firm.
‘We know Tesla is going to promote its technology and needs to if Semi and Cybertruck are the next platforms both requiring high density solutions,’ said Canaccord analyst Jed Dorsheimer in a note to investors, quoted by AFP.
‘But like most things Tesla, the devil will be in the details, which sadly will take some time to play out.’
The mega battery will power upcoming Tesla electric vehicles, including the heavy-duty Semi truck (pictured)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is taking on the heavy pickup truck market with the Cybertruck electric vehicle
Musk’s ‘Cybertruck’, which looks like an armoured vehicle with a futuristic angular body in gunmetal grey, will go into production in 2021.
The pickup, which Musk said will cost $39,900 (£31,000) and up, will have an estimated battery range of up to 500 miles.
Tesla boasts that the car’s nearly impenetrable monochrome exoskeleton provides passengers maximum protection, together with ultra-strong glass that absorbs and redirects impact force.
The $200,000 Roadster sports car – an updated version of Tesla’s first production vehicle from 2008 – can travel 620 miles on a single charge, a new record for an electric vehicle.
Its maximum speed is over 250 mph, which would make it the fastest car in general production.
The Semi, meanwhile, which was unveiled in 2017, is a long silver cargo truck that can reach 60 miles per hour with an 80,000-pound load.
It has Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving system, designed to keep a vehicle in its lane without drifting, and can transition from one freeway to another with no human intervention.
Today’s battery event was originally planned for April this year but was delayed due to the pandemic.
WHAT IS TESLA’S ‘GIGAFACTORY’?
Tesla’s ‘Gigafactory’ is located on Electric Avenue in Sparks, Nevada.
The factory’s name stems from ‘giga,’ a unit of measurement that represents billions.
One gigawatt hour is the equivalent of generating one billion watts for one hour — one million times that of one kilowatt hour.
Tesla says the factory will be producing 35 gigawatt hours of batteries by 2018.
The current structure has a footprint of 1.9 million square feet, which houses 4.9 million square feet of operational space across several floors
It’s currently about 30 percent finished – and once complete, it will be the biggest building in the world
That’s the equivalent to the entire world’s production in 2014.
New York City uses around 52 gigawatt hours of energy per year.
Once completed in 2020, the factory is set to become one of the biggest buildings in the world, with a final size of 10 million square feet.
Already, the current structure has a footprint of 1.9 million square feet, which houses 4.9 million square feet of operational space across several floors.
‘Once complete, we expect the Gigafactory to be the biggest building in the world,’ Tesla said.