Source: Jeff Roberts/Youtube
Tesla is moving closer to making the first electric cars with 4680 cells, having trucked a large delivery from its anode and cathode lines to its upcoming Texas factory.
A plan to change battery cell sizes to a wider format, implement tabless electrodes and other numerous approaches to cell production in order to reduce costs and increase pack level efficiencies was unveiled in late 2020. With a diameter of 46mm and length of 80mm, the new format is widely known as “4680”.
The delivery was noted in a video taken by Jeff Roberts, a Youtuber with more than 18,000 subscribers who posts daily drone videos of progress at Tesla’s Auston factory.
On Wednesday, he posted a video saying, “We got lucky today with the arrival of the Cathode Line 1 and Anode Line 1 production equipment deliveries and it didn’t sit in storage long; within minutes of arrival, the Anode Line 1 truck headed deep inside of the battery cell production area which is the Northwest “quadrant” of the factory!”
“This means 4680 batteries could be ready to go into production vehicles soon and it all started on DAY 468; coincidence???!” Roberts continues.
From about 7:50 (see video below), you can see the trucks approaching Tesla’s Texas gigafactory in Austin, which is nearing completion and which will make the Tesla Model Y as well as the Cybertruck.
On the side of the trucks is spraypainted “Anode Line 1” and “Cathode Line 1“, presumably Tesla’s names for the pilot lines at its Kato Road 4680 facility in California.
Tesla has been piloting production of the new cells at its Kato Road facility in Fremont, and at the company’s Q3 2021 earnings call in early October, Tesla senior VP Drew Baglino said that first vehicles with 4680 cells would be delivered in early 2022.
“From a non-cell perspective, structural, battery, crash, range, and reliability testing are on track to be complete this quarter,” said Baglina.
“Testing … to date has gone well, and the Fremont manufacturing line is on track to support.”
Now, it would seem that those vehicles will be produced in Texas, which also means they will be Model Y electric crossovers.
“However,” Baglino also noted at the investor call, “this is a new architecture and unknown unknowns may exist still.
“Our top priority is ensuring quality in what we deliver. And from a cell perspective, we are comfortable with the design maturity and manufacturing readiness, matching the pack timeline I just mentioned.”
Eventually, Tesla plans to make battery cells at both its upcoming Texas and Berlin gigafactories. At tesla’s annual shareholders meeting for 2021, Tesla boss Elon Musk said that production of the Cybertruck, Roadster, and Tesla Semi are all on hold while there continue to be cell constraints and other supply chain issues.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.
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