Tesla CEO Elon Musk: 100 kWh Battery Pack Probably As Large As We’re Going
Tesla will not offer battery packs above 100 kilowatt-hours (kWh) anytime in the near future, if at all, going by new comments made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Twitter.
Here’s the tweet:
Glad you like it! I think we will probably stop at 100 kWh on battery size.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 16, 2016
Given the wording used in the tweet, this is probably something that hasn’t been firmly decided upon as yet, but rather may or not hold true in the future. Or maybe it will be true for a while, but that 5–10 years from now a higher-capacity battery pack will be an option.
Going by some of the replies to Musk’s tweet, though, it seems that many people aren’t quite grasping the implications of what he’s saying. He’s not saying that there “probably” won’t be any range increases above what the Model S and Model X have now. He’s saying that the battery packs themselves are “probably” not going to feature capacities over the current maximum 100 kWh.
To put that another way, with improved battery chemistries: weight can be reduced, thus increasing range; size/space can be reduced, leading to further changes which could have an effect on range; the eventual removal of side mirrors will increase range somewhat (Japan is already there); etc.
Battery pack costs can surely be reduced as well, which could lead to lower unit pricing or at least improve profitability.
So, to be clear, future range increases still seem pretty much inevitable for the time being, but these likely won’t be achieved through the use of battery packs with storage capacities above 100 kWh — at least, for the time being.
Also, I’m assuming that this only pertains to the Model S and Model X. If the company is truly planning to release an all-electric pickup truck that will sell well, then it seems very likely that it will need a notably larger battery pack than 100 kWh.
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