Future Tesla Cars Will Use Batteries for Shell Structure
Battery packs in current Teslas are mounted in the floor of the cars, but they're not structural parts of the chassis. That could eventually change. At its "Battery Day" event today, Tesla detailed its plans to halve the cost per kilowatt-hour of its batteries. To help achieve that goal, the automaker is rethinking how it builds cars in the future.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company has commissioned the world's largest stamping machine. Eventually, it'll be used to make massive single-piece stampings for the front and rear of the chassis, while a battery pack filled with Tesla's new 4680 cells will make up the center section.
Musk argued that this is as significant as aircraft moving from separate fuel tanks, to tanks that integrated within their wings. "This was a major breakthrough," he said. "We're doing the same for cars."
Since the cells themselves provide structure, there won't be extra material in the battery adding weight without contributing to energy capacity. Musk also said this design allows the cells to be packaged closer to the center of the vehicle, which increases safety in a side impact, and lowers the polar moment of inertia, which should give the car a more agile feel.
The cells will be adhered to top and bottom "sheets" with a flame-retardant structural adhesive, which Musk says provides incredible rigidity. So much rigidity that if you were to build a convertible based around this sort of chassis, it'd be stiffer than a conventional car. (As for what Musk is referencing when he says a "regular car," that's unclear.)
This new approach to chassis design is part of Tesla's goal of reducing cost per kilowatt hour of battery capacity by half. That's why the company is designing and building its own cells in house. Doing so, Tesla says, will help make EVs more affordable and increase driving range, and in turn, that will get more drivers into electric cars and away from internal combustion.
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