Elon Musk Hints Battery technology with 50% more energy density ahead of Tesla Battery day.

 

BY     AFZAL YOUSAF

Ahead of their much awaited Tesla Battery day Tesla Inc CEO ELON MUSK hints about a battery technology that that will improve current energy density of the batteries by 50%. If this happens, it allows electric vehicles to achieve longer range without much difference in battery size and probably reduction in weight of the battery. This will be a huge boost to EV sector.

Elon musk tweeted that "400 Wh/kg *with* high cycle life, produced in volume (not just a lab) is not far. Probably 3 to 4 years".

Wh/kg is the common way to express the energy density of the battery. Energy density of the battery means how much energy can be stored in a battery on a particular unit. Currently 265 wh/kg is the maximum energy density of Li ion batteries. If Tesla comes with batteries of energy density 400 wh/kg, it will be around 50% more of current system and helps EVs to break the barrier of low ranges. This will make EVs more competitive in automobile market.

Experts in the EV and battery field started discussions as it is not clear what technology Tesla is going to use for achieving this milestone. Tesla's battery partner is Panasonic and Experts believing that they both are working on a technology called "Silicon nanowire anode" to achieve this.

Researchers have been working on for decades to improve anode and cathode of the battery and it is very difficult to improve the anode. So in silicon nanowire technology, they will be hoping to replace graphite anode with silicon which is more efficient and can store more times of energy than graphite.

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