Electrek got the first photo of Tesla’s new structural battery with a honeycomb architecture that will power its future electric vehicles.
Tesla structural battery pack
At its Battery Day event last year, Tesla not only unveiled its new 4680 battery cell, but also a new battery architecture built around the new cell.
Inspired by aerospace innovation of building airplane wings as fuel tanks instead of building fuel tanks inside the wings, Tesla decided to build a battery that acts as a body structure, connecting the front and rear parts of the underbody.
Tesla currently builds batteries by combining cells into modules, which when placed together form a battery. This battery is installed on the vehicle platform.
The difference with this new concept is that Tesla is not using modules and instead builds the entire battery as the vehicle’s structural platform, with the battery cells helping to solidify the platform as one large unit.
Using its expertise in giant castings, Tesla can connect a large single piece rear and bottom front to this structural battery pack.
This new design reduces the number of parts, the total battery mass, and therefore allows Tesla to improve the efficiency and ultimately the reach of its electric vehicles.
The structural battery pack is expected to be used for the first time in the Model Y to be built at Gigafactory Berlin and the new Model S Plaid.
The move is seen as bold in the industry, as most electric car makers are trying to protect the battery, while Tesla plans to use it as an integral part of the structure of its electric vehicles.
First photo of Tesla structural battery with honeycomb design
Electrek obtained the first photo of one of the first structural batteries ever produced by Tesla.
The image shows the battery without the new 4680 cells – featuring the honeycomb design of the battery:
Without the cells, we can better appreciate the structural aspects of the honeycomb structure, which is known for its strength and also for being light.
It has already been used in the aerospace and automotive industries – although not for the same use as Tesla.
The BMW i3 uses a hexagonal honeycomb structure to absorb impact around the vehicle’s battery.
In the photo of the new Tesla battery, we can also see that Tesla built the cooling circuits on the sides around the battery:
To complete the battery pack, Tesla would place the 4680 battery cells in the holes and connect them to the pack to contribute to structural integrity and power electric vehicles.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk commented on the cells’ contribution to the structure:
The battery pack will be a linked structure with cells that provide shear transfer between the steel sheets of the upper and lower face, eliminating most of the central parts of the body while providing better torsional rigidity and better polar moment or inertia. This is a major breakthrough.
Some pointed out that while the benefits of this project are becoming obvious, it also complicates repairs in the event of an accident.
However, Musk claims that Tesla designed impact-absorbing rails that can be cut and repaired to preserve packaging.
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