Tesla files patent for the million-mile battery

KUALA LUMPUR: In its commitment to making clean energy accessible and affordable, the electric car specialist, Tesla, is continuously raising the level. Recently, a new patent has been filed by the firm’s battery research group in Canada for a battery component that powers the electric vehicle for 1 million miles of driving. 

The patented "single crystal" NCA electrode is likely to be used in the new battery cells, which will increase battery performance and longevity while reducing the cost. 

The patent states, “The [method presented> allows for single crystal NCA materials to be produced without impurities which lead to “dead mass” in electrodes.” The new application may replace the company’s previous patented technology of NMC cathode lithium-ion battery.

During testing, the NMC technology battery was last for more than 4000 charge cycles at 40 degrees Celsius temperature. But when a cooling system is combined with the new chemistry, it was able to hit more than 6000 charge cycles.

The firm says that if NMC battery-equipped electric vehicle could achieve an average drive range of 250 miles, then it would result in a total driving range of 1 million miles over the lifetime of the battery pack. 

The progress of creating the million-mile battery is highly visible in the words of the firm’s CEO, Elon Musk. His recent Twitter post confirmed that the Tesla Model 3 was built with the intention of robotaxi duties, which could become the ideal testing ground for a million-mile battery. Not only this, he earlier mentioned that Model 3 is built with componentry designed to achieve 1 million miles of driving, though its battery packs are expected to last 300,000 to 500,000 miles.

Thus, the NCA electrode patent came as another step to achieve the target of entirely autonomous robotaxis, as Tesla also filed a patent for revised autopilot software a few days ago. Autopilot is Tesla’s advanced assisted driving program that comprises autosteer, auto-park, and Traffic-Aware Cruise Control (TACC) features.

Tesla has been developing the batteries for several years and is likely to present something amazing soon.

Also read: After Model 3, Tesla to manufacture Model Y at its new China plant