There is a lot of chit and chat around the water cooler here at CleanTechnica about Tesla manufacturing their own battery cells. There were at least 2 pieces of this massive puzzle uncovered in the last week and we found another clue this morning. The previous pieces of the puzzle include our article that analyzes some recent Tesla job postings in Fremont that, when translated from “techspeak,” reveal Tesla is looking for people to install and ramp up a battery cell production line in Tesla’s Fremont factory.
The other bit of news is some exceptional detective work by YouTuber and friend of CleanTechnica Galileo Russel of HyperChange TV. He uncovered a lot of very interesting information about an unusual Tesla job posting in Denver Colorado called “Manufacturing Technician, Cell Manufacturing.” The job description mentions that this person will be working to develop a new battery cell manufacturing line which would not be so strange but for the fact that as of today, Tesla officially doesn’t have any kind of facilities in Colorado apart from retail shops and service centers.
The information we are breaking today adds to the likelihood of the new job posting tying to a more meaningful effort on the part of Tesla in Colorado when it comes to batteries. Elon’s jet has landed in Denver, Colorado and something tells us that the big boss has not flown in just to inspect a service center. If Gali’s theories pan out, Tesla may be buying up to 3 separate battery startups that happen to be located very close to each other on the map. Those companies are ForgeNano, Solid Power and SiILion (whose official website is currently down).
Tesla recently filed their 2019 10-K with the SEC and within that document is a very, very long list of subsidiaries and purchased companies which now includes Maxwell and Hibar. As of the end of 2019,there was nothing new in the state of Colorado. What this tells us is that if Tesla is putting any new battery technology companies in their acquisition shopping cart, they have not quite sealed the deal. Elon flying to Denver changes things as he could be flying in to sign the final documents for any one of the acquisitions or all three.
Elon’s jet flew into Denver on Saturday February 15th so it is likely that whatever official business Elon is conducting there, it will take place today. We will continue looking into the matter, but we could expect to hear something from his Colorado trip very shortly. On the other hand, if the deal is not a very big one, it is possible that Tesla will not have to disclose it, in which case we won’t find anything out for a while.
Tesla has thus far not replied to our request to comment and we will update the story if they do. In the meantime if you want to learn more about Tesla’s next-gen cell info, we recommend our article from a few days ago about Tesla ramping up battery cell manufacturing in Fremont. If you want to learn more about what is going down in Denver, we recommend Galileo Russel’s video below. When it comes to information about Tesla’s next-gen batteries, information is very scarce. It all remains a mystery with some conflicting reports and theories. We are working on a more comprehensive article about this with some input directly from Gali at HyperChange TV so it should be a fun article. Keep your eyes out for that sometime in the next few days.
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