In case you weren’t paying attention, Elon Musk fell in love with Texas, the state where Tesla is building the new American Gigafactory. He also decided to move Tesla’s headquarters in Texas recently, so you kind of expect to hear big news coming from Texas from now on. And they do, as this flyover video shows.
Tesla announced they will transition to a structural battery pack for their cars once the production difficulties for their 4680 battery cells will get sorted out. Gigafactory Texas is where the magic will happen, and this is confirmed in a recent video posted online. The video, which aims to show the Gigafactory Texas construction progress, features a rare sighting of a weird car body loaded onto a trailer.
Although it closely follows Model Y lines, this particular body-in-white does not appear to have a bottom structure. This got the Internet freaking out as it means Tesla is closer to integrating the structural battery pack into the body of the car. This is a big deal as currently, electric cars have the battery packs attached to the car’s body, thus needing special reinforcements to hold the heft of the battery.
The structural battery packs will not only do away with body reinforcements but will function themselves as body reinforcement. Thus, it allows attaching the car to it rather than the other way around. Elon Musk has touted the new technology as a manufacturing revolution in the auto industry. It brings advantages like faster production pace, as well as lighter and more rigid cars.
Tesla hinted before they will use the structural battery pack to install things that normally are attached to the body floor, like the seat mounts. Also, the front and back “megacastings” will complete the platform that will be “married” to a body like the one spotted in the video.
Tesla Gigafactory Texas was expected to start production by the end of this year, with Model Y being the first car produced in Texas. Later on, the Cybertruck will also make its way to the production line. Ramping up Model Y production at Giga Texas is only expected during the first half of 2022, though.
Although it closely follows Model Y lines, this particular body-in-white does not appear to have a bottom structure. This got the Internet freaking out as it means Tesla is closer to integrating the structural battery pack into the body of the car. This is a big deal as currently, electric cars have the battery packs attached to the car’s body, thus needing special reinforcements to hold the heft of the battery.
The structural battery packs will not only do away with body reinforcements but will function themselves as body reinforcement. Thus, it allows attaching the car to it rather than the other way around. Elon Musk has touted the new technology as a manufacturing revolution in the auto industry. It brings advantages like faster production pace, as well as lighter and more rigid cars.
Tesla hinted before they will use the structural battery pack to install things that normally are attached to the body floor, like the seat mounts. Also, the front and back “megacastings” will complete the platform that will be “married” to a body like the one spotted in the video.
Tesla Gigafactory Texas was expected to start production by the end of this year, with Model Y being the first car produced in Texas. Later on, the Cybertruck will also make its way to the production line. Ramping up Model Y production at Giga Texas is only expected during the first half of 2022, though.