This is a very interesting development. Those simple changes of having a much larger cell with a tabless design could alone result in a significant improvement in the performance of the cells.
Combine that with some potential material and chemical changes, and the overall performance improvements might be more than just incremental compared to Tesla’s current cells.
Now a new cell format also means new modules and new packs to accommodate the new cells.
There could be room for improvement here too, since Tesla will be going from thousands of cells per pack to potentially less than a thousand with this cell format.
At this point, it’s also my understanding that Tesla plans to unveil more than one new battery cell at Battery Day.
We have previously reported on
Tesla’s project Palladium, which involves significant updates to Model S and Model X, but it now looks like it could also involve new cells specifically for that project on top of the Roadrunner cells.
How Tesla plans to roll out those new cells into its existing vehicle programs in production without too much disruption is less clear.
We are likely going to have to wait until Battery Day to understand the full extent of Tesla’s plans.
electrek.co
