Tesla Battery Day did not yield a direct answer to a question that many were eagerly listening for. During the presentation, the cherished words that Tesla's battery will last one million miles were not sounded. However, this does not mean that the company has not achieved this.
The head of Tesla's battery research team, Jeff Dahn, says that a two million-mile battery is possible--and necessary--if car batteries are to be embraced as an integral part of grid storage. The new data was discussed at a recent videoconference Energy Storage & Sustainable Engineering.
After three years of testing, Dahn found that his cells had a lifespan of over two million miles. He has tested his battery over 20,000 cycles at a depth of charge-discharge of 100% and found that his battery can last 15,000 cycles and still have 90% of its capacity.
Source: Energy Storage & Sustainable Engineering
If we multiply 15,000 by his estimated driving range of 217 miles, we get 3.25 million miles in the worst-case scenario, which is when the battery fully discharged and charged every cycle. However, different conditions of use of a battery will have a different effect on its longevity. He found that if you use about 25% of your battery each day, the battery could last tens of millions of miles.
Source: Energy Storage & Sustainable Engineering
Such a battery can be used to make money as well as revolutionize transportation. Dahn suggests considering options for how exactly these batteries can be used.
Vehicle to Grid Technology
Typically, cars aren't assets, but it looks like Tesla is about to change this. In fact, with this technology, you can sell energy to the grid without worrying about the degradation of the car battery.
Grid Energy Storage
Such batteries have great potential here. Their durability guarantees a stable income that will last for decades because the batteries will have only little degradation. Daily charging and discharging of the energy storage is 400 cycles per year, which means 10,000 cycles in 25 years, explains Dahn.
Avoid recycling & put EV batteries (when the rest of the car dies) into second use
A battery with such a long service life will eliminate the need to recycle them frequently. It will also dramatically reduce the cost of electric vehicles, as the battery will last longer than the exterior of the car, so the battery can be used for your next car.
"Ideal" applications, such as ferries and hybrid aircraft
Using batteries to power these types of vehicles is not just a dream, but a reality. There is already a company that has announced that it will use two batteries from the Tesla Model S to power a passenger boat. For those vehicles that make frequent short-distance trips, new batteries would be perfect.
Dahn's new batteries provide significant advantages for the ongoing development of several areas, and offer exciting potential for new directions with the technology. It looks like Tesla will continue to charge on--pioneering and revolutionizing various industries each mile of the way.
© 2020, Eva Fox. All rights reserved.
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Article edited by @SmokeyShorts, you can follow him on Twitter
About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
