Elon Musk used Tesla’s much-anticipated Battery Day presentation not to disclose some super cell, but to outline an aggressive, comprehensive and radically innovative approach to battery design, manufacturing and vehicle integration that he projected will result in a 56% reduction in cost/kWh and a $25,000 electric vehicle in about three years. The baseline precept for the presentation was the centrality and associated difficulty of manufacturing new technologies at a scale sufficient to make a tangible difference. Rapidly scaling global battery manufacturing capacity, Musk pointed out, is absolutely central to achieving large-scale electrification and climate goals. Tesla has two battery-related goals, Musk said. The first is terawatt-scale battery production. “ Tera is the new Giga. ” Gigafactory Nevada currently has a capacity of about 0.15 TWh. The second goal is a more affordable battery cell. What troubles me is that we don’t yet have a truly affordable car. The curve […]