The Major Problem With Tesla China-made Model 3, Solved

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The world is fast transitioning into an era of renewable energy with the advent of wind turbines, hydro-energy, solar panels, and now electric cars.

Electric cars are fast gaining popularity and it would be just a matter of years before the vehicles become commonplace.

Tesla is at the very forefront of the production of these cars that run on "clean" renewable energy.

The more common vehicles with their internal combustion engines with high demand for the fast depleting fossil fuels are the source of air pollution in the environment.

Electric cars solve this problem by running on rechargeable batteries that are mainly composed of expensive cobalt or cheaper lithium.

Following the Covid-19 pandemic, Tesla's "battery day" has been put on hold till about June this year. It was supposed to be the unveiling of its EV battery developments.

However, there are some reports that the car production giant has made some good moves in the direction of lowering the cost of their electric cars. It is set to achieve this by using cheaper batteries.

The cobalt batteries of the before are not cost-effective and had contributed to the cost of producing electric cars. These low-cost batteries would be put in the China-made Model 3.

To solve this battery problem, Tesla has liaised with the Chinese Battery Maker, Contemporary Ampere Technology Co. Limited (CATL) to produce cheaper batteries for electric vehicles.

The battery maker with its headquarters at Ningde, Fujian Province, produces lithium-ion phosphate batteries.

With this lithium-ion phosphate technology, the very expensive cobalt is done away with, reducing the cost of electric car production.

The CATL's LFP battery pack is set to cost as low as $US80/kWtt.

This is about 20% less than the amount experts had postulated that would bring electric cars on equal grounds with diesel and petrol vehicles.

A Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had put up a catalogue showing Tesla's intention of using the LFP batteries in the Model 3 electric cars that are made locally.

This was reported by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). These confirm that Tesla does indeed intend to use LFP batteries.

This also means that the company would further reduce the price of the Model 3. It should be recalled that the car of the electric car was dropped sometime in April in adherence to the China Subsidies restriction.

Elon Musk, the co-founder of Tesla, had just recently said that the price of the Range Plus Model 3 was dropping.

Nonetheless, the company's vibrant mint millennial Chief Financial Officer, Zachary Kirkhorn also stated that there were more opportunities to bring the price even lower.

These opportunities lie in the localization of the supply chain. Thus with increased local production, the cost of production is set to reduce.

This will further reduce the price for the Model 3. Tesla is set to create more variants of the Model 3 –the Long Range and Performance types.

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https://thedriven.io/2020/05/25/tesla-wants-to-put-low-cost-batteries-in-china-made-model-3/