Car lovers of the world unite! No, we haven’t found a way to reconcile Chevy and Ford. Nor have we discovered what was up with the Yugo. Those are eternal conflicts/questions. But, a million-mile electric car battery? And from automotive rocket-maker Tesla? Heck, yeah! Well, maybe. Indeed, Gildshire has been led to the news trough by Elon Musk before, only to be shown the automotive version of a shell game. But, Tesla could have something up its quirky sleeve to reveal later this year. And it might be a long-lasting battery that would allow its electric automobiles to reach near-cost parity with gas-powered cars. If so, this would be the biggest shakeup in the car world in a while. Gildshire wanted more, and Roadshow by Cnet helped with the research.
Thursday, May 14, rumblings in the international press indicated Tesla battery program news, and it fell in line with industry insider news. Namely, that a so-called “million-mile battery” was nearing its debut.
“Good Lord! A million miles between charges would be the biggest car news since the assembly line!”
Stop! The “million miles” is to the end of the battery’s life! Not the range!
“Oh, well, okay. Still, this is good news.”
Sorry to have soiled your Cheerios, but this is significant. The new battery will spring from a development project between Tesla and Contemporary Amperex Technology out of China.
CATL’s contribution comes from battery chemistry that operates without cobalt, or very little of that expensive product. Removing the priciest part of the battery, while enabling it to store energy longer, could be the massive power breakthrough that we have long-awaited.
“Is this the solid-state battery I keep hearing about?”
No, some folks call that The Holy Grail of car batteries, and we aren’t there yet. Solid-state is prohibitively expensive. In fact, so expensive that it isn’t workable right now. But, this is news that is just a step behind.
Tesla is hoping to, eventually, create enough of a grid to compete with the big utility companies, in the UK at first, through the United Kingdom’s Autobidder system that promotes energy sharing with participating battery farms or solar panels. The “sharer” receives a financial incentive for not needing energy when someone else does.
Tesla has long been interested in “second life” applications for car batteries. In other words, they could function as storage units when a vehicle is done with them.
Elon Musk’s plan to reveal his battery breakthrough is set for late in 2020, but it could perhaps be moved up to later this month at the so-called “Battery Day.” The unit’s launch will probably take place first in China, followed by tweaked versions for other countries, including the United States.
“Probably. You did make it a question in the headline.”
Good catch. The press has learned to be nimble where Tesla is concerned. So “probably,” is in order. But, we do expect breakthroughs in electric car power plants, and Tesla seems the best positioned to initiate. So, probably to almost certainly. How does that sound? A million-mile battery, almost certainly. That sounds exciting to us.