Tesla fans have been waiting nearly a year for the oft-delayed Tesla Battery Day, where the company is expected to announce major innovations which will enable the expansion of electric vehicles and stationary battery storage.
With Telsa still sporting a valuation bigger than most of the biggest car companies combined, the hype is currently through the roof, with many hoping Tesla will announce a breakthrough that will bring EVs to parity with petrol cars and justify the sky-high valuation.
In an unusual move, Tesla tweeted today to deflate some of the hype, noting whatever they will announce will not have an immediate impact, but will only enter mass production in around 2 years (which is probably still Elon time).
We intend to increase, not reduce battery cell purchases from Panasonic, LG & CATL (possibly other partners too). However, even with our cell suppliers going at maximum speed, we still foresee significant shortages in 2022 & beyond unless we also take action ourselves.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 21, 2020
Tesla has been working to set up its own internal battery production pipeline, but Elon notes that in the near term they will in fact be buying even more batteries from companies such as LG Chem to keep up with demand.
Bringing production in house will however help them beat anticipated shortages coming in the next few years.
Tesla is widely expected to announce the million mile battery tomorrow – ie a battery which does not suffer significant capacity degradation after 1 million miles, which would open up a number of scenarios including vehicle to grid charging.
Tesla’s Battery Day presentation will follow their 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders will be held on Tuesday, September 22, 2020, at 1:30 p.m. PT and which will last about 2 hours.