Tesla Starts Mass Production of New ‘2170’ Battery Cell at Gigafactory
January 5th, 2017Via: Electrek:
For the past year, Tesla has been guiding “by the end of the year” for the start of battery cell production at the Gigafactory. The end of the year has come and gone, but Tesla didn’t confirm the start of production.
As it turns out, Tesla, and its battery partner Panasonic, started production of cells for qualification at the plant in December, but today, it confirmed the start of “mass production” of the new battery cell, which will enable several of Tesla’s new products, including the Model 3.
The new cell (pictured above) is called ‘2170’ because it’s 21mm by 70mm. It’s thicker and taller than the previous cell that Tesla developed with Panasonic, which was in an ‘18650’ cell format.
