As EVs move into mass production, the industry is going to need an insane—make that ludicrous—amount of batteries. Trendsetter Tesla long relied solely on Japan’s Panasonic for cells, but around the time production began at Gigafactory Shanghai, it started working with other suppliers, including Korea’s LG and China’s CATL. Tesla and CATL signed a supply… Read more »
Search Results Found For: "Tesla"
Plug-ins surpass 10% market share in California as Tesla sales surge
We can’t let Europe and China have all the fun—EV sales in North America’s EV capital, California, are finally taking off. According to the California New Car Dealers Association, some 53,261 plug-in vehicles were sold in the Golden State in the first quarter of 2021, representing 10.8% of the total auto market. The pandemic was… Read more »
New update for Tesla Powerwall—another step towards building a virtual solar utility
Tesla’s ambition is to build a “decentralized global electric utility.” The potential is enormous—CEO Elon Musk has said that Tesla Energy, the company’s energy generation and storage division, could someday outgrow its automotive business. The idea is that Solar Roofs generate renewable electricity, and Powerwalls provide storage and interface with the electric grid. The Powerwall… Read more »
Tesla creates ever-more powerful supercomputers to train neural nets for Autopilot
Tesla has its corporate fingers in quite a lot of cutting-edge technological pies. Its cars, solar panels and stationary storage systems are widely discussed, but it’s less well-known that the company is also a pioneer in the field of supercomputers. Tesla recently unveiled a new supercomputer, which it says is the fifth most powerful in… Read more »
Elon Musk: Tesla’s new Plaid electric motor crazy, new Roadster will have even crazier version
Elon Musk has revealed some details of Tesla’s new Plaid carbon-wrapped electric motor, and teased an even hotter, higher-rpm version that will appear with the next-gen Roadster. The Plaid motor is based on new technology that allows Tesla to build smaller, more powerful and efficient motors than ever. It’s small enough to be picked up… Read more »
Tesla battery supplier CATL planning a large new plant in Shanghai
Chinese battery manufacturer CATL is planning a major new automotive battery plant in Shanghai as it sets “a blistering pace of expansion that will cement its lead as the world’s number-one supplier,” unnamed sources have told Reuters. No timeline has been revealed. Tesla appears to be very much a part of CATL’s growth strategy. The… Read more »
Tesla grants $3 million to Dalhousie University for advanced battery research
Dalhousie University researcher and lithium-ion battery pioneer Jeff Dahn has been cooperating with Tesla since 2016, and the partnership has already resulted in significant progress that Tesla hopes will lead to the development of its vaunted million-mile battery pack. Now Professor Dahn, along with his Dalhousie colleagues Chongyin Yang and Michael Metzger, have received a… Read more »
Tesla to use LG’s new NCMA cathode materials in Chinese Model Y
Over the last few years, Tesla has been diversifying its battery supply chain, working with new suppliers and trying out new chemistries in its cells. Gigafactory Shanghai, which is geographically close to the Asian firms that currently supply most of the world’s Li-ion cells, has been the center of the automaker’s brave new battery biz…. Read more »
Texas fails to change dealership law—Tesla still can’t sell directly to state residents
For almost a decade now, Tesla has been fighting state governments for the right to sell its vehicles directly to customers—something which has historically been prohibited in most US states. Texas is one of the states that still forbids direct sales, so residents have had to resort to a workaround some call the “Texas two-step.”… Read more »
First Model Y megacasting produced at Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas
Tesla has taken a major step towards implementing an innovative new chassis design—the first Model Y megacasting has come out of the enormous Idra “gigapress” at Gigafactory Texas. Front and rear megacastings will be combined with the company’s new structural battery pack to form the underbody of Model Y. Current automobile chassis are made up… Read more »