
Tesla's Roadrunner project: new battery production at $100 per kWh - fergaral
https://electrek.co/2020/02/26/tesla-secret-roadrunner-project-battery-production-massive-scale/
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woodandsteel
The important point is that if cells get down to $100/kWh, then ev's could
have sticker prices equal to ice's. That would cause ev sales to skyrocket,
which is absolutely essential for saving the climate.

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toomuchtodo
This is important, but also note that the Model 3 cost ($40k-$60k) is above
the average new vehicle price ($35k) and Tesla still can’t build enough to
meet demand.

If Tesla hits $100/kWh, combustion vehicles are done. They will never have a
lack of buyers while legacy automakers collapse under their exciting capital
cost structure (Ford is already in junk territory, and other automakers aren’t
far behind).

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foxyv
It's even worse than that, the price to beat is the Honda Fit and Toyota
Corolla at about $20k

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Someone1234
The article doesn't say what the current cost per kWh is? I'm just curious to
contextualize how big of a leap a $100 per kWh cell would be.

Additional question: Does a Lithium-Ion cell for a moving vehicle need to be
higher quality/greater tolerance, relative to stationary? Just seems like a
Lithium-Ion cell built for a vehicle needs to survive low/high temps, and also
a lot of jostling or risk fire/venting.

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ksec
There is a difference between Battery Cell and Battery Pack, which the article
wasn't very clear although I seriously doubt $100/kwh is for Battery Pack.

Current estimate of Battery Pack is roughly ~$150 / Kwh.

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jseutter
Commenting on your comment, the cost of the battery pack is roughly 70% cells
and 30% battery pack. Using those numbers, cells at $100/kwh would result in
packs costing roughly $143/kwh, vs the current situation where cells are
costing them roughly $105/kwh.

It doesn't seem like enough of a drop to warrant the hyperbole in the article
if is a ~5% drop in cell price. Maybe they are talking about making packs for
$100/kwh, which would be more impressive.

Given that pack prices have been dropping 18%/yr, pack prices dropping to
$100/kwh is about 2.5 years away. Hiring for a production process that matures
~2 years in the future seems feasible. Maybe they are talking about pack
prices?

Educated guesses of pack vs cell cost: [https://about.bnef.com/blog/behind-
scenes-take-lithium-ion-b...](https://about.bnef.com/blog/behind-scenes-take-
lithium-ion-battery-prices/)

