Tesla launched its Advanced Battery Research division in 2016 in partnership with the lab of Jeff Dunn, widely regarded as one of the creators of lithium-ion batteries. A team of engineers led by Dan has been tasked with creating better batteries for electric vehicles. Since then, they have designed several designs for Tesla and registered a number of patents and are now starting to share details about their designs.

New type batteries

The new paper describes the chemical composition of the NMC532 nickel-based battery, which will compete with LFP batteries. The developers are confident that the new battery will surpass lithium-ion batteries and offer higher energy density than the lithium-iron-phosphate combination. Technically, this means that Tesla could build electric cars with a much larger power reserve, but more compact and, most importantly, cheaper battery if prototypes of the battery confirm all the engineering calculations.

NMC532 cells, made of graphite sufficient to charge up to 3.80 V, have an energy density that exceeds the energy density of LFP cells and a service life that significantly exceeds the service life of LFP cells at temperatures of 40, 55 and 70 degrees Celsius,
– the engineers said in the instructions to the article.

One of the main innovations of this battery is a LiFSI-based electrolyte. This element raises the efficiency and stability of the new battery to record levels. The battery described in the article can last for about 100 years if the ambient temperature is approximately 25 °C. More specific features have yet to be announced – in the near future, scientists will continue to work on the design and then continue testing prototypes.

In April of this year, analysts discovered that Tesla is rapidly converting its electric vehicles to lithium-iron-phosphate batteries. According to the Electreck portal, the manufacturer now produces up to 50% of new models with these batteries instead of lithium-ion batteries. In this way, Tesla is reducing its reliance on cobalt, an expensive element needed to make the popular batteries whose cost has increased by 5x in the past year alone.