New Tesla Battery combines Dry Cell and Supercapacitor

(The driven, February 26, 2020)

New electric vehicle battery technology from Tesla to be outlined at its upcoming Battery Day in April will involve a combination of dry cell and supercapacitor technology, sources in China have revealed. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request to confirm this report, but if it proves correct it could put Tesla – already 6 years ahead of other electric vehicle makers with its version 3 hardware, according to Japanese engineers – even further ahead of the game. Anticipation about what Tesla will reveal for its next generation of batteries is high; recent news indicated that “advanced talks” with battery maker CATL were progressing and that “Made-in-China” Model 3s may be built with a cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry made by CATL. Maxwell’s dry electrode technology can increase the cell’s energy density to more than 300Wh/kg, and it is expected to further increase to 500Wh/kg in the future, or break the current bottleneck of 300Wh/kg of ternary lithium batteries.