Leaked Photo of Alleged Tesla Structural Pack Suggests 4680 Battery Cells Are Ready

Image: u/LurkeOnly/Reddit

During Battery Day, Tesla unveiled a completely new structural battery pack consisting of new 4680 lithium-ion tabless cells. The company has worked hard to bring the new battery to market as quickly as possible, which, at a lower cost, will be more efficient and have a number of other advantages. A recently leaked photo of a battery pack from the signing ceremony at the Tesla Fremont factory has received a lot of attention, as the author of the post claims it is a 4680 cell structural battery pack.

On July 10, Reddit user u/LurkeOnly posted a photo of the battery pack. In a message in the post, he wrote that it is the "4680 Battery signing" ceremony and the battery is ready. However, 11 hours after publication, this post was deleted by the author. In the photo, we can see the battery pack, which has many different signatures and drawings. Among the names, we can find such employees of the company as Kris Wickstead (Senior Manufacturing Engineer), Dennis Arias (Welder), Anthony DiBello (HV Battery: Global Manufacturing Engineering), Tony Freitas (Manufacturing Engineer). All employees work in different US cities: Carson City, Nevada, San José, California, Reno, Nevada. However, it is likely that they all developed a structural pack.

At the moment, part of the community believes that a 4680 structural pack is actually captured in the photo. Some have even stated that their sources have confirmed this information (although the next day this tweet was also deleted). This sounds plausible enough and fits well with the timing of the anticipated progress that Tesla could have made, given the statements made by CEO Elon Musk during the Q1 2021 Earnings Call.

Sources have confirmed that this is indeed a Tesla 4680 cell based structural battery pack, built a few days ago. https://t.co/UuWYAmaXlD pic.twitter.com/8RKktUlW0J

— 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝗹𝗮 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘀 🔋 (@truth_tesla) July 10, 2021

Another part of the community strongly doubts that this is really a new structural pack for 4680 battery cells. The first thing that raises doubts is the difference between the photographed pack and the one that was presented during Battery Day in 2020. The top of the pack that covers the battery cells looks completely different. Nevertheless, it is worth considering the fact that a pack for Model Y was shown at Battery Day, and in the recent photo, there may be a pack for another car model, probably of a larger size.


Image: Tesla

Another strong argument is that the leaked photo shows a battery pack that is identical to the one shown during the presentation of Model S Plaid. Musk stated that the vehicle uses 18650 battery cells, which means that the new photo is highly likely to show a battery pack with time-tested battery cells. @ajtourville/Twitter supports this theory with the fact that the inverter and BMS in the leaked photo are located in the front and not in the back, which is the opposite of the structural pack rendering shown at Battery Day and the technical drawings in the Tesla Structural Pack patent.

The inverter and BMS are located at the front of the pack, not the rear... which is the *opposite* of the Structural Pack 3D rendering shown at Battery Day and the technical drawings in Tesla's Structural Pack patent pic.twitter.com/eDDLt62Q4W

— ALEX 🚀 (@ajtourville) July 10, 2021

At the moment, the community is at a loss. We can only expect that someone from Tesla's team will confirm or deny one of these theories.

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Article edited by @SmokeyShorts, you can follow him on Twitter

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