1.2V NiMH battery

TSLA is secretly developing power 1.2V NiMH battery to get rid of its dependence on Panasonic

According to foreign media reports, five current Tesla employees revealed that the company is exploring ways to develop and produce electric vehicle batteries on its own. Since signing a broad cooperation agreement with Panasonic in 2014, Tesla has relied on Panasonic's battery supply.

Tesla employees revealed that the company is conducting battery production research in the skunkworks laboratory near its Fremont factory. Employees of Tesla's battery research and development team are currently focusing on designing advanced lithium-ion batteries and some new equipment and processes to enable Tesla to mass-produce batteries. Last month, Tesla also released multiple recruitment information for engineers who are good at battery design and battery production equipment and manufacturing industry.

At the annual shareholders' meeting just held this month, Tesla CEO Musk and CTO JB Straubel both said that the company has been limited by battery supply in the past, which has also limited the production capacity and sales of Tesla electric vehicles and energy storage systems (energy walls and power packs) to a certain extent. Tesla will announce the application of Maxwell's battery technology at the Power Battery and Powertrain Conference later this year. It is expected that they will announce the latest research results of this secret team at that time. In the relevant reports of Tesla's acquisition of Maxwell, many media have mentioned that Maxwell technology can easily increase Tesla's battery energy density by 30%-40% without causing a significant increase in costs. Therefore, Tesla's independent research and development of batteries is of great significance to the company's development. In addition to helping them get rid of their dependence on Panasonic, it can also greatly reduce battery costs (at least they don't have to pay Panasonic) and provide customers with higher-performance electric vehicles at a lower price.

Despite the current embarrassing situation, it is estimated that Tesla and Panasonic will not tear their faces in the short term, because Tesla still needs Panasonic's battery supply, and Panasonic will continue to hold its breath and work due to the large investment in Tesla's factory. In an interview with the media, Panasonic said that the two parties have always been a partnership, not a supplier relationship as rumored by the outside world, and the relationship between the two parties is very stable.

However, at this stage, Panasonic is still Tesla's only battery supplier. As for which battery will be used for the domestic Model 3, this has always been a mystery. Some people say that the domestic Model 3 will choose to cooperate with domestic battery suppliers, and some people say that even if all batteries are imported, it will be more cost-effective than cooperating with domestic brands, so Tesla will still use batteries in cooperation with Panasonic. But @不看车 believes that Tesla is more likely to choose to cooperate with domestic suppliers because their batteries have been in a state of insufficient production capacity, which is the main reason for limiting the delivery speed of Model 3. In addition, there are new models such as Model Y, Semi, Roadster 2020, and pickup trucks that are in urgent need of mass production, and they also need a large supply of batteries. It is probably difficult for Panasonic or Tesla to meet the demand by itself.

If Tesla truly achieves self-production of batteries, it will not need to cooperate with external suppliers or share data and resources, and it will help it provide cheaper and better electric vehicles than it currently does. According to IHSMarkit research, battery packs and batteries are the main cost components of electric vehicles.

However, even if Tesla succeeds in developing its own batteries, the company is unlikely to cut off its ties with Panasonic and other battery suppliers in the short term. Tesla and Panasonic did not respond to requests for comment on the above report.

Self-production of batteries is also in line with Musk's overall goal of making Tesla as vertically integrated as possible, which means that the company needs to master the integrated capabilities of development (even including its own enterprise software), production and sales. But for Tesla, which has recently been implementing cost-cutting measures and striving to achieve production capacity targets, mass production of batteries will be another challenge. Gasgoo, don’t look at the car

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