The Japanese conglomerate Panasonic has presented the prototype of its new 4680 battery cell. According to Kazuo Tadanobu, head of the battery division, the target customer is the American car manufacturer TESLA, which already gets some of its batteries from Panasonic.
As reported by Focus online, the performance per cell is said to have been increased compared to the previous model to such an extent that the range could be increased fivefold. But not only that – due to the simpler manufacturing process of the new battery type 4680, the costs should only be around 50% of the current manufacturing costs.
The energy density is not five times that of the 1865 model used so far, because with a 46mm diameter and 60mm length it is significantly bigger, but the energy density is increased by the larger form factor, as less cell packaging material is required per unit volume.
Panasonic will probably stick to nickel-cobalt-aluminum (NCA) technology. According to Tadanobu, Panasonic has no plans to manufacture lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries as used by Tesla in its cheaper base models.