Brief description of Tesla Model 3 battery pack

Do you still remember that in the first quarter of 2018, Max has said that the cobalt content of Tesla's NCA cathode material is lower than that of the next generation of NCM811 produced by other battery manufacturers? Plus the battery pack, the total weight of the Model3 is comparable to that of a gasoline car.

There are two information points in this sentence: Tesla made a breakthrough in battery performance; Tesla battery pack became lighter.

Tesla's small breakthrough in battery performance, Geek Car also said in a previous article, today focuses on the second point.

Before the article begins, let's take a look at the concept of a battery pack:

Cell: A single cell, which can be understood as a single cell.

Battery unit: A battery unit constitutes a battery unit.

Module: B battery units into one module.

Battery pack / battery pack (Pack): C module combination is the battery pack of the electric car.

The science is finished.

First, how much is the battery pack lighter? The weight of the battery pack is calculated every kWh. The weight of the Model3 battery pack is 15% lighter than the original ModelS85D battery pack, and 6% lighter than the top ModelS/XP100D battery pack. Simply put, the Model3 battery pack is lighter in weight under the same battery capacity.

There are several reasons why the Model3 battery pack can be lightweight:

Cell core material develops to low cobalt and high nickel

The Model 2170 used in the Model 3 reduces the amount of cobalt required in the cathode material to less than 10%, which is lower than the cobalt content in the next-generation NCM811 battery produced by other battery manufacturers (the cobalt content is 10%). This breakthrough made Tesla's demand for cobalt reduced by 59%. In 2012, Tesla consumed 11 kg of cobalt per car, and by 2018, it consumed 4.5 kg of cobalt per car.

In addition, Musk also said that Tesla is committed to increasing the nickel content in the positive electrode of the battery to achieve weight reduction of the battery pack.

What is the benefit of increasing the proportion of nickel to reduce the proportion of cobalt? The quality of the entire battery pack is reduced. It will also bring about an improvement in battery performance, an increase in cruising range, and a certain degree of increase in the acceleration of electric vehicles. Of course, these are all words.

The battery pack is getting smaller

This is due to the 2170 cells, which are much larger in size and battery capacity than the 18650 cells, which results in less battery requirements for the same battery capacity.

Some time ago, a foreign team disassembled the Model3 long battery version (battery capacity of 75kWh), so we got the following data:

The Model 3 battery pack consists of four modules with different ratios. Two of the modules consist of 25 battery cells and the other two modules consist of 23 battery cells. Each battery unit has 46 2170 batteries, and the Model3 has a total of 4416 2170 batteries.

Earlier, some foreign friends disassembled the ModelS85D. We took the data and made a simple comparison: the 85D battery pack has 16 modules, each with 444 knots, consisting of 7104 18650 batteries.

From the data, it is clear that the number of Model3 batteries is less than the ModelS85D, which also makes the Model3 battery pack take up less space. And the weight is lighter.

Battery crash protection design different from ModelS/X

In the Model3 battery pack disassembly video, you can see that the Model3 battery crash protection design is different from the ModelS/X.

The ModelS is designed with a battery case designed to protect the battery and weighs 275 pounds (about 124.74 kg), which is equivalent to 1/4 of the weight of the battery pack.

But the design was removed from the Model 3 battery pack, which means the battery pack was reduced by 275 pounds.

But in order to ensure safety, Tesla has its own set of methods.

On the ModelS, high-rigidity steel is rarely used on the body because the "thick" battery case provides safety for the battery pack.

However, on Model 3, the use rate of high-strength steel is greatly improved. And the most important part is the part of the body and the battery.

In other words, the Model3 transfers the battery crash design to the body. This increase and decrease, the overall weight of the car has been reduced.

Battery pack lightweight in progress

Tesla achieved a lightweight design of the battery pack through design optimization from the inside out. If you think this is over, then you are wrong, knowing that Musk has a deep obsession with technological innovation.

OurapproachatTeslawastoadoptimprovementsassoonastheywereready.Thismeantweweimplimplingingupto50changesperweek.Weoftenjokedthatifyouwantedtoknowthe"modelyear"ofyourTesla,youneededtolookattheindividualcar'sVINnumber.

The update of products within Tesla is always there, and we improve our products by more than 50 per week. So we often joked that if you want to know which generation of Tesla products, check the registration code of your vehicle.

The above paragraph is said by Greg Reichow, former vice president of production at Tesla. In other words, the battery pack design of Model3 we see now is not stereotyped. Tesla is still continually optimizing the battery pack and constantly upgrading its products. That's why Tesla can stay ahead of the industry.

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