tesla battery

In June, Pikes Peak will hold the 100th edition of its world-famous hill climb competition. Its centenary will not be the only thing that will make the race special, but also a modified Tesla Model S that will take on the hill climb with its driver, Blake Fuller, having the record in mind.

Based on his LinkedIn profile, Blake is the founder and former CEO of Braille Battery, a manufacturer and seller of ultra-lightweight high performance AGM and lithium-ion batteries. Braille is the official battery supplier of several, if not most, racing series around the world, including Indycars and NASCAR. Fuller is also the founder of wearable battery startup Go Puck.
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Tesla often said that the Model 3’s $35,000 price tag was dependent on the company achieving its battery cost reduction goals at the Gigafactory. Recently, Tesla officials said that the Gigafactory should no longer be seen as a constraint in the Model 3 supply chain and that the company is confident in its capacity to start producing battery cells.

The factory was first presented as having a full annual output capacity of 35 GWh of battery cells and 50 GWh of battery packs – with the difference in cells being imported from other manufacturers, like Tesla’s Gigafactory partner Panasonic, but also other possible cells suppliers.

Now it looks like Tesla is looking to South Korea to diversify its battery cell supply chain for the Model 3.
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Tesla’s Battery Swap Program impressed a lot of people when it was unveiled back in 2013. It probably was one of Tesla’s most well-organized presentation. Elon Musk narrated a live test on stage during which the company performed two automated battery swaps while live-streaming a Tesla employee filling up a gasoline car.

Despite the impressive nature of the system, Tesla launched the program very carefully and it took over a year before it opened its first “pilot facility” in Harris Ranch, California. Only a select few Model S owners were allowed to participate in the program and swap battery packs.
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Last year, Tesla and Jeff Dahn’s battery-research group at Dalhousie University announced a new partnership that will see the group transition from their 20-year research agreement with 3M to a new association with Tesla under the newly formed ‘NSERC/Tesla Canada Industrial Research’.

Just as the new partnership with Tesla is about to start next month, a year after it was announced, Canada’s Governor General now announces that Dahn will be one of the recipient of the prestigious Innovation Awards.
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Earlier this week, Tesla confirmed that it is introducing its new 75 kWh battery pack to the Model S, like it did for the Model X last month. Now Tesla confirmed that while the option is not available now, it will be by the end of the week, and every updated Model S 70 produced since the ‘facelift’ was equipped with the new 75 kWh battery, but software-limited to 70 kWh.
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Update: Tesla has now reverted the website to the previous version listing again the 70D indicating that it was an error./

Over the weekend Tesla quietly removed the 70 kWh battery pack option from the Model X reservation page on its website. The move comes just after a Tesla OS hacker revealed that the automaker is working on a bigger 100 kWh battery pack.

Now only the P90D and 90D, both equipped with a 90 kWh battery pack, are shown as options on the Model X reservation page. The 70 kWh option is still available on the Model S’ online design studio.

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Tesla’s Gigafactory, which is located near Reno in Nevada, was busy with outsiders this week. After CEO Elon Musk and SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive organized an event Wednesday night for Nevada politicians and top government officials, today local media were given access and were even allowed to take a few pictures inside.
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The U.S. Department of Energy invests in early stage energy projects through its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, in order to develop breakthrough technologies that could make renewable energy cheaper and better.

ARPA-E Director Dr. Ellen Williams (on the right above), a chemist best known for her research in surface chemistry and for being former chief scientist at BP, gave an interview this week in which she made controversial remarks about Tesla Motors’ work on battery technology. She highlighted Tesla’s battery manufacturing initiative, but added that it is not technology innovation.
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Acciona, a Spanish conglomerate in renewable energy and infrastructure, created last year the first team to compete at the Dakar rally with an electric vehicle. Unfortunately, they didn’t last long, but they are coming back for Dakar 2016 and they feel more confident than ever after coming out of the Morocco Rally last month as the first team to finish it with an electric vehicle.

The company seriously upgraded the vehicle this year with a focus on efficiency and a brand new battery pack. At Dakar 2015, Acciona’s car could achieve 125 miles (200 km) on a single charge with a 140 kWh battery pack under the race’s difficult road conditions. The upgraded car has a 150 kWh pack, which is only a 7% increase, but the team says it can now travel 217 miles (350 km) on a single charge under the same racing conditions, which is a 75% increase.
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In a new note issued today, Jefferies analyst Dan Dolev increased his price target on Tesla Motors to $365 following a new analysis on the company’s battery business. When Tesla first announced its “Gigafactory“, it forecasted a ~30% reduction in battery cost through economy of scale and improved chemistry, but since then Tesla executives revealed that 30% might have been conservative and Jefferies seems to agree.
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