I think the legacy automakers will all catch up to Tesla in the coming years. I also they think they will provide cheaper options and attract first time buyers which Tesla does not are much about any more. Tesla got the head start, the next decade will be about defending that lead as all the others catch up fast.
Zing! Perhaps I should come clean and mention that what I've seen, cylindrical cell rolling without tabs is an order of magnitude faster than prismatic cell rolling which requires wrapping around fingers and then extracting the fingers for each cell. Probably more. Prismatic cells probably twice as fast to make as pouch cells but I've seen very little pouch cell production (just a couple of YouTube videos). The anode is a different animal. Again, I think cylindrical cells have a big advantage here but I am no expert on the subject. Also, I assume cell formation is the same for all three cell types but it's possible there are nuances with each type. Lastly, I consider pouch cells and prismatic cells to be variations on the same theme, despite one being folded like toilet tissue before a wipe and the other being a stack of cut sheets.
This video has a tiny glimpse of cell wrapping at starting at 7:25 and lasting about 4 seconds. This clip may be slowed down or they may have been running the cathode line at a reduced rate during qualification runs. There is another video of cathode production at Giga Berlin but I think it has been taken down. Whatever the case, I don't know where it is but that video shows cathode wrapping at astonishing speed. It's hard to fathom they can cut the ribon and start a new cell that quickly but they were wrapping 4860 cells in under 2s. If someone has some video of prismatic cell wrapping at full speed, I would love to see it. Manufacturers tend to not share that type of footage.
BTW, Shanghai is just getting up to speed now. They have shipped a couple of ship loads of cars to Europe. I think Shanghai should produce about 90K units on the quarter. Apparently, Fremont is producing at a rate of 150K units per quarter. Texas is starting to produce a non-trivial amount of cars but I don't expect an impactful contribution. That's still 240K units or just under 1M units of annualized production. Considering Shanghai has been shut down for 2 months, that is amazing. It will be interesting to see how the market reacts.
DANGER: Speculation I suspect that Ford will be the first non-Tesla manufacturer to use the SuperCharger network. If this turns out to be the case, Ford will take a big jump and Tesla will take a small one.
Ahhh grey poupon. Only the betters would understand. My Tesla is running off in the ditch but I don't care. Thanks joe.
I wish to point out that when someone posts an order receipt, I click "like" not because I think its a great idea but because I respect the conviction. I'm the guy at the party saying, "Hell yeah! A face tattoo is a great idea!"
In this case, Spud, I'm sure you are going to come out OK. The market makes no promises of gains within 1 hour or its free. In time, Tesla will take care of you.
Neta has announced a car with 1100km range. Nio will also have one. Apparently, they are using a new battery technology that will allow them to ship 150KW batts.
My generation hires people with face tattoos because we realize they have no bearing on someone's quality of work
