In a short thread on Twitter, user JPR007 shared his thoughts on Tesla’s Roadrunner project and some quotes he reportedly picked up from people working at Tesla. We cannot confirm the quotes or the identities of any of the sources, so definitely plant this in the “rumor mill” pile. Nonetheless, if the quotes are from Tesla employees working on or near the Roadrunner project, you may appreciate reading them.
“The B-Day Invasion Is Underway,” JPR007 tweeted, followed by “a series of short dispatches from the front line” and some extra commentary of his own. Below is the text from the images:
The Roadrunner Project is blowing people’s minds at Tesla. I quote:
“It isn’t solely about Tesla manufacturing their own cells. That is only a small part of the story. Holy sh*t. My mind is blown just thinking about it. And Semi….I couldn’t even begin to tell you about the battery pack. And MegaPack…fuh….”
“Roadrunner is a different cell than 2170.”
“Roadrunner will be integrated to Model Y first.”
WHAT IS THE ROADRUNNER PROJECT ? pic.twitter.com/clFg17RWcb
— JPR007 (@jpr007) June 7, 2020
In a second tweet, asking “But what is the Roadrunner Project,” he shared an image with the following text (in case you can’t see the tweet above):
All I can say is that it seems to be the epicenter of big changes that are coming at Tesla. It was previously understood to be primarily about cell chemistry and Tesla manufacturing their own cells.
-Which clearly remains true.
-But as the comment shows, “that is only a small part of the story.”
Something to remember about the Semi:
-Standard Range Semi is said to have a 500 kWh battery and that would currently require 50,400 cells of 2170 size. Personally, I am expecting a new and much larger cell size from Tesla. I am teasing them that it should be a 50/170… that is 50 mm diameter and 170 mm length.
But maybe we will have to wait for that size of Bologna Sausage until Battery 4.0. For now, we should only expect Battery 2.0.
-But it sounds like they plan to leave everybody else’s 1.0 and 1.1 and 1.2 and 1.3 in the dust behind them.
Which is as it should be for the Market Leader with the greatest amount of Accumulated Experience.
My 2.5¢
It seems that Tesla is making some major changes to its batteries and will start integrating those changes with the Model Y. The update is apparently known internally as “Roadrunner,” but Tesla developing its own battery tech is just a small part of this.
The implication here is that Tesla is well ahead of competitors when it comes to its battery development. If these talks about “Battery 4.0” prove true, then it shows that Tesla is doing what Elon Musk is well known to do — operating several moves ahead of the competition.
Would it be surprising if Tesla were several steps ahead of the competition in the battery realm? To some, yes. Would it be completely expected? To others, yes. Even for those of us expecting Tesla to be far ahead, though, there may be some technical surprises in store.
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