Panasonic's financial director confirmed today that Panasonic is renovating a factory in preparation for the production of new batteries, and is expected to start trial production of 4680 electric vehicle batteries in April. This battery is the new type of battery mentioned by Tesla in 2020, the 4680 battery claims that the single energy can be increased by 5 times, and the mileage of the whole vehicle is increased by 16%. Panasonic also said that because Tesla has a strong demand for this battery, it will give priority to meeting Tesla's requirements after mass production. According to Panasonic's financial data, Tesla's business accounts for about 60% of panasonic energy business revenue, which generated $1.69 billion in revenue in the last quarter of last year. Tesla contributes $1 billion in revenue, and Panasonic will of course try to prioritize the needs of this big customer.
In a conference call after Tesla's earnings report a few days ago, Tesla CEO Musk confirmed that the 4680 has been deployed on the prototype car. At Tesla's Texas plant, he said, 4680 batteries are already being used to produce the Model Y, but the relevant product certification needs to be completed before it can be delivered to the market.
According to the previous elimination, Tesla's supporting factories in Texas will also produce this new type of battery, and the number of factories producing batteries will be further increased after the production technology matures. Other suppliers, including Panasonic, will supply Tesla with 4680 batteries at the same time. Therefore, at the earnings meeting, Drew Baglino, Tesla's vice president of engineering and technology, said that the supply of 4680 batteries will not be limited this year, and it is expected that the first Model Y equipped with 4680 batteries will be delivered by the end of the first quarter of 2022.
Some new Tesla owners are looking forward to using the 4680, which is understandable because it can add a little more range. But in fact, when to use the 4680 battery, Tesla itself will benefit more than for the owner. In 2020, Tesla has already revealed this new type of battery to the outside world, which is a new cylindrical battery with a larger size, 46 mm in diameter and 80 mm in height, so it is named 4680 battery, also known as the electrodeless ear battery, compared with a 16% increase in power and a 14% reduction in cost.
In October 2021, Panasonic demonstrated a prototype of this battery, which is 5 times larger than the battery used by Tesla earlier, which is the mystery of the increase in power. In contrast, the 4680's battery density has increased by only 15%, but the use of larger batteries will naturally greatly reduce the number of batteries used in the vehicle. Tesla currently uses the 2170 battery pack, a car is composed of about 4000 cells, and the use of 4680 batteries can reduce the number to 800, which greatly reduces the production time of battery equipment, combined with the integrated molding technology of Tesla body, the body is simplified into several modules, which is of great significance to Tesla at this stage.
Tesla ranked first in the world in electric vehicle sales with 936172 in 2021, more than doubling the same period last year. Tesla ranked first in 2020 with sales of 499,535 vehicles. Tesla's global sales are expected to continue to grow this year, Tesla's delivery speed is limited by the factory's production capacity, many car buyers need to wait for several months, just last week, November booking users just mentioned the car. At present, Tesla in the United States Fremont factory and China Shanghai factory production Model 3 and Model Y, their new factory in Berlin, Germany has just begun to put into use in these two months, once Tesla's production capacity and delivery time problem is solved, then Tesla has the energy and attract more orders, so the bicycle production time is Tesla in the past one or two years when the production capacity has been exhausted to solve the priority problem, which includes the use of larger batteries, simpler body production technology, Faster paint drying and minimizing the number of chips used are also important reasons why all car manufacturers have had to announce the suspension of production in the past year in the face of a lack of chips, but Tesla can take advantage of the opportunity to increase the amount. In recent days, Tesla has thousands of new cars that have just been produced, waiting to be loaded at Shanghai terminals for shipment to Israel, Greece and the United Kingdom.
According to information revealed by Tesla at the Berlin factory open house last year, the 4680 battery will come in the form of a structured battery. The battery and chassis are fully integrated, the upper cover of the battery is the floor of the carriage, and the seats and armrests are mounted directly on the upper cover. Traditional car manufacturers have been emphasizing the use of modular production to reduce production costs, but after all, the components of traditional fuel vehicles are much more complex than electric vehicles. The simplified structure of the three-electric system for electric vehicles provides the possibility of faster production of vehicle production, which is what Tesla pursues and the fundamental reason for ensuring Tesla's profits. Musk expects deliveries to easily grow to more than 50 percent in 2022 and fully autonomous this year.
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