The big Tesla news and the will of Elon Musk help electric mobility also in Europe.
Tesla amazes with its promised novelties a few years from now, even a Model 2 for less than 25 thousand euros with super eco-batteries made in the USA. Meanwhile, in Germany Elon Musk shakes hands with Volkswagen’s number one and tries out the ID.3. American and German rivals on the market, but collaborative for the electric revolution?
Many think of Tesla as a “forward” brand but not for everyone. American cars with artificial intelligence that the others cannot yet have, electric natives, very fast and powerful, but expensive. For everyone, if anything, it is literally Volkswagen (from translation of the name, in German) that has long launched a major investment plan with products and services aimed at democratizing the electric car in Europe. Yet the great Elon Musk, patron of Tesla and Space-X, to name just two, is very close to Germany. Recently, when he checked the works in the Giga-factory under construction near Berlin, he even greeted Volkswagen’s rivals.
He, who has always stirred heavy criticism from all over Europe linked to the iron industry, is portrayed smiling in symbolic Germany together with Herbert Diess. After a nice ride with the ID.3, predestined rival of his beloved Tesla Model 3. Here, two extremes on the map, on the map and also in the catalog of the BEV 2020, which come together nicely. It might make you think wrong, but users who love electric mobility must like it instead. And how. The common fronts of the major players in the electric car industry are those that, while frightening those who fear an oligopoly, rapidly advance the rise of pure EVs and the need for infrastructure with dedicated services. Well then, that the perspective of a colossus symbol of classical industry is more far-sighted, that certain pawns also close to supranational politics have common messages in favor of advanced mobility, for everyone and not just for a narrow or distant target.
Already some statements by the wife of the new big boss Daimler, suggest that the electric car is in the destiny of the most powerful German industries, those who invented the popular and high-end car. The VW folks, with Diess as Elon’s new friend, did it right. What Tesla lacks in terms of proximity to the European target they will never lose, and it is pleasant to know that both see a future with cars that are less and less means of transport but true containers of connected services, in safety.
Elon Musk will change the batteries to his Tesla with also cost advantages
The words or ideas that were transformed into additional systems on cars that were born thermally, for some new BEVs will be concepts included from birth, hopefully much less onerous. Then we will see if the ID range really will be so close to the low cost claims that the European market is asking for. Elon does not yet have really low cost models, such as the ID range access which can go down to the long-awaited 29K, but he said it at Battery Day 2020: between now and 2022 he will change the batteries of his Tesla with also cost advantages.
How? Gradually, first Musk amazes us with the record-breaking Model S Plaid. A car ready immediately and expensive (140 thousand dollars) but with a range of 800 km, 1,100 HP and a 0-100 km / h under two seconds. The maximum speed, 320 km / h, is superfluous. The track record is significant, 1’30 “3 as a record lap among road cars at Laguna Seca. While waiting to try it at the Nürburgring.
Then the American company transforms itself into a producer of new generation economic batteries.
Thanks also to a mining concession for the extraction of lithium in Nevada, without however closing to suppliers such as Panasonic, CATL and Maxwell. Costs will be reduced and new ecological methods will be used, such as the reuse of raw materials by eliminating waste of metals and rare earths. First step the so-called 4680 that will equip above all the future Model 2, if so called.
The new little Tesla is officially scheduled. Objective? For sale in the US for $ 25,000. Even if, as we know, the real final price in Italy may rise, this is an absolutely relevant target. For Tesla fans, the real “revolution” of the electric car instead of the VW one which for now starts at 38K. We will know by 2023, when the Germans will also have extended their model range, starting with the ID.4, which is now closer and closer, and also passing through models of the Seat or Skoda brand.
Batteries: Musk expects a cost reduction up to more than 50% cuts compared to today for each kWh
But let’s talk about batteries, very interesting for everyone including rivals / friends who produce electric cars in Europe. Musk expects a big cost reduction. The estimate is that for each kWh there is more than 50% cut compared to today. Is this perhaps the real step for the democratization of the EVs? According to Musk staff in the 1930s, EV batteries could cost $ 70 per kWh. The new cell marked 4680, 14% less expensive than the previous one while being more powerful, will be produced with new processes (dry electrodes) and the assembly will also be renewed. With a “Giga-Press” that saves structural elements and space in the factory, therefore less expense for the battery, which is also a useful supporting element for the rigidity of the car.
Obviously we will not see all the benefits immediately. The first of the new effects for Tesla batteries will be felt in about a couple of years. Coinciding with the debut of the small eco-Tesla with 46×80 cells (the name derives from the measurement in millimeters of the elements).
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