At the start of Tesla's life, Elon Musk only gave it a 10% chance of making it. So he poured his own
money into the company. So I didn't want to ask people - other investors - for money if I thought
we were gonna die. It's gone from almost being bankrupt to this moment. Hey everyone,
the battery stuff we're going to talk about is
truly revolutionary. Battery Day is the day we saw a road map for an affordable electric
car.
Ever since unveiling its first vehicle the Roadster in 2006,
Tesla's mission has been to move the world towards sustainable transport.
I think global warming is a very serious issue and it's something that we have to address and
the only way to address that is to come up with a car that doesn't add carbon emissions to the
environment and I think the way to do that is with electric vehicles. Over the years, the fleet has
expanded yet there still isn't a model that is cheap enough for everyone to buy in large part
due to the cost of the battery. Electric vehicles are powered by lithium-ion batteries which contain
cobalt - a very expensive material not to mention some mines are said to exploit child labor.
Cobalt is found in the cathode - the structure that holds the cell together.
Tesla has now decided to eliminate cobalt and rely on nickel. And you can see nickel is the
cheapest and the highest energy density and that's why increasing nickel is a goal of ours and really
everybody. And they say that will drive down a price of a car significantly. We're confident
that long term, we can design and manufacture a compelling $25,000 electric vehicle. So,
you know, this has always been our dream from the beginning of the company. But Musk says
the car is three years away because the battery technology will take a while to get up to scale.
If and when it does, there appears to be plans to add it to the future fleet of self-driving
taxis called robotaxis. Battery costs have gone down significantly over the decades,
measured by the price per kilowatt-hour, a unit of energy commonly used for billing. It's fallen
from $1,100/kWh in 2010 to $156/kWh in 2019. Many researchers believe getting under $100/kWh
will make EVs comparable in price to gasoline and diesel-fueled cars. Tesla says its new battery can
reduce the kilowatt-hour cost by 56%. The battery is also bigger and better compared to the current
one that powers the Model 3 and Model Y. The new version contains five times the amount of energy,
16% more range, and six times more power because the tab is removed. The tab is
the part that connects the cell with what it's powering. By taking it away, the electrons will
travel a shorter distance. This is a massive breakthrough. Nobody's done it before. Just
like other car companies, Tesla relies on external suppliers to make its batteries:
Panasonic, LG, and the Chinese company Contemporary Amperex Technology.
But they're feeling the strain as production increases. Tesla will start to build its own
batteries in-house at a facility in Fremont, California which will help bring the cost down
as well. Eventually, the production capacity will be many times that of the Gigafactory in Nevada.
That factory has a planned capacity of 150 Gigawatt-hours a year whereas Tesla aims
to make 3,000 GWh/yr by 2030. But in order to achieve the transition to sustainable energy,
Musk says the world needs 20,000 to 25,000 GWh/yr (or 20 to 25 TWh/yr). We really are
hopeful that other companies will also do what we're doing and that will make the sustainable
future come sooner. We've talked until we're blue in the face. What are we supposed to do?
Regardless of what other companies get up to, Tesla has an ambitious plan of eventually churning
out 20 million vehicles annually or about a quarter of all cars sold globally every year.
Tesla will be absolutely head and shoulders above anyone else in manufacturing - that is our goal.
How does the ICE industry look like in the future? Well, I don't think there will be an ICE industry
long term. It does remain to be seen how quickly Tesla can deliver on its revolutionary battery,
which goes to show that Tesla is not just a car company but a tech company hoping to usher in an
electric era with the help of better technology. I wanted to spend a minute talking about another
kind of technology. You know when you want to watch a video on YouTube but it says it's not
available in your region? What if you could get around that. I recently tried out NordVPN
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And I have another big thank you as well. Thanks so much for watching, I'm Cindy Pom.
So do you think conventional cars will become obsolete and if so, how long will that take? Let
me know your thoughts, you can leave them in the comment section below. If you like what you saw,
give it a like, and don't forget to subscribe to my channel. A big shout out goes out to
my Patrons including my Patreon Producer Nino Gjoni. I will see you all very soon.