(Image: Tesla) Panasonic had some good news for Elon Musk and Tesla this week.
Without the electric car maker having to do any work, the Model 3 and Model Y are set to benefit from improved range from batteries that cost less to produce.
As TechCrunch reports, the battery cells used in the Model 3 and Model Y, the "2170 lithium-ion cells," are manufactured by Panasonic at Tesla's Gigafactory 1 facility in Nevada.
New technology has allowed Panasonic to improve the energy density of the 2170 by five percent while reducing the amount of cobalt they use at the same time.
Cobalt is expensive, so the 2170 cells effectively just got cheaper to produce.
Panasonic will have upgraded the existing 2170 production line to use the new technology by September, at which point the benefit will be passed on to Tesla.
The current range of a Model 3 is rated at 322 miles, where as the Model Y achieves 316 miles.
With the updated battery cells, those ranges should improve to 338 miles and 331 miles, respectively.
That's a small gain, but every little helps, and as the cells are cheaper it offers Tesla an opportunity to lower its prices in the near future if it sees the need to.
You may also remember that last month Tesla managed to increase the range of the Model S to 402 miles, but that was due to an "obsession with efficiency and energy frugality."
The aim of Panasonic is to eventually end up with a cobalt-free battery cell.
"It’s kind of exciting from the Panasonic perspective; we’re driving towards cobalt free and we’re driving towards higher energy dense batteries, which gives our customers a choice of how they want utilize that," said Panasonic Energy North America President Allan Swan.
According to Celina Mikolajczak, vice president of battery technology at Panasonic Energy of North America, cobalt-free batteries have already been demonstrated in the lab, they just haven't made it on to a production line yet.
(Image: Tesla) Panasonic had some good news for Elon Musk and Tesla this week.
Without the electric car maker having to do any work, the Model 3 and Model Y are set to benefit from improved range from batteries that cost less to produce.
As TechCrunch reports, the battery cells used in the Model 3 and Model Y, the "2170 lithium-ion cells," are manufactured by Panasonic at Tesla's Gigafactory 1 facility in Nevada.
New technology has allowed Panasonic to improve the energy density of the 2170 by five percent while reducing the amount of cobalt they use at the same time.
Cobalt is expensive, so the 2170 cells effectively just got cheaper to produce.
Panasonic will have upgraded the existing 2170 production line to use the new technology by September, at which point the benefit will be passed on to Tesla.
The current range of a Model 3 is rated at 322 miles, where as the Model Y achieves 316 miles.
With the updated battery cells, those ranges should improve to 338 miles and 331 miles, respectively.
That's a small gain, but every little helps, and as the cells are cheaper it offers Tesla an opportunity to lower its prices in the near future if it sees the need to.
You may also remember that last month Tesla managed to increase the range of the Model S to 402 miles, but that was due to an "obsession with efficiency and energy frugality."
The aim of Panasonic is to eventually end up with a cobalt-free battery cell.
"It’s kind of exciting from the Panasonic perspective; we’re driving towards cobalt free and we’re driving towards higher energy dense batteries, which gives our customers a choice of how they want utilize that," said Panasonic Energy North America President Allan Swan.
According to Celina Mikolajczak, vice president of battery technology at Panasonic Energy of North America, cobalt-free batteries have already been demonstrated in the lab, they just haven't made it on to a production line yet.
