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Electrek got the first image of Tesla’s new structural battery with honeycomb architecture that will power its future electric vehicles.
Tesla structural battery pack
At its Battery Day event last year, Tesla not only unveiled its new 4680 battery cell, but also a new battery architecture built around the new cell.
Inspired by aerospace innovation of building airplane wings as fuel tanks instead of building the fuel tanks inside the wings, Tesla decided to build a battery pack that acts as a body structure, connecting the front and rear subframe parts.
Currently, Tesla builds batteries by combining cells into modules which, when put together, form a battery. This battery is installed in the platform of the vehicle.
The difference with this new concept is that Tesla doesn’t use modules and instead builds the entire battery as the structural platform of the vehicle, with the battery cells helping to solidify the platform into a single large unit.
Using its expertise in giant castings, Tesla can connect a large one-piece rear and front undercarriage to this structural battery pack.
This new design reduces the number of parts, the total mass of the battery pack, and therefore allows Tesla to improve the efficiency and ultimately the range of its electric vehicles.
The structural battery pack is expected to be used for the first time in the Model Y which will be built at Gigafactory Berlin and in the new Model S Plaid.
The move is seen as a bold move in the industry, as most electric car makers are trying to protect the battery as Tesla plans to use it as an integral part of the structure of its electric vehicles.
First photo of the Tesla structural battery with a honeycomb design
Electrek got the first photo of one of the very first structural battery packs Tesla ever produced.
The image shows the battery without the new 4680 cells – showcasing the battery’s honeycomb design:
Without the cells, one can better appreciate the structural aspects of the honeycomb structure, which is known for its strength while being lightweight.
It has been used in the aerospace and automotive industries before – but not for the same purpose as Tesla.
The BMW i3 uses a hexagonal honeycomb structure for shock absorption around the vehicle battery.
In the photo of Tesla’s new battery pack, we can also see that Tesla has built the coolant loops on the sides around the pack:
To complete the battery pack, Tesla would drop the 4,680 battery cells into the holes and bond them to the pack to help with structural integrity and power EVs.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk commented on the contribution of cells to structure:
The battery pack shall be a bonded structure with cells providing shear transfer between the top and bottom steel face sheets, eliminating most of the central body parts while providing better torsional stiffness and polar moment or inertia improved. This is a major step forward.
Some have pointed out that while the benefits of this design become evident, it also complicates repairs in the event of an accident.
However, Musk claims that Tesla designed shock absorption rails that can be cut and repaired to preserve the packs.
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