‘Production at Tesla is gaining momentum’ says Panasonic as it increases battery cell production at Gigafactory 1

Panasonic, Tesla’s exclusive battery cell supplier for electric vehicles, is planning to increase battery cell production by 30% by the end of the year at Tesla Gigafactory 1.

The company says that ‘production at Tesla is gaining momentum’ and it needs to make sure not to become a bottleneck in the Model 3 production.

The Japanese electronics giant is the sole battery cell supplier for Tesla’s vehicles. It manufactures custom 18650 li-ion cells in Japan for Tesla’s Model S and Model X vehicles. The Model 3 cells are custom 2170 li-ion cells co-developed with Tesla and manufactured by Panasonic at Gigafactory 1.

Earlier this year, Panasonic said it was open to increasing its investment in the factory.

Tesla Gigafactory 1, which started in 2013, has already grown into the biggest battery factory in the world with an annual production capacity of over 20 GWh.

But they need to more than double that over the next year alone in order to support Tesla’s ambitions.

Now Japanese media Nikkan is reporting that Panasonic is planning to increase its battery cell production capacity by 30% at the plant by the end of the year with three new production lines for a total of 13.

Panasonic Chief Financial Officer Hirokazu Umeda confirmed that production has gained momentum and they expect it to start being profitable by the end of the year:

“Production at Tesla is gaining momentum. We are ramping up a new (battery production) line now and expect the business to contribute not just to our revenue but also to our profit from the second half (starting in October).”

Interestingly, that’s also when Tesla plans for the Model 3 program to turn a profit.

Panasonic aims to bring the total battery cell production capacity to 35 GWh by the end of the year.

The current structure has a 1.9 million square-foot footprint. Including several levels, the factory currently has about 4.9 million square feet of operational space. This represents only ~30 percent of the planned completed Gigafactory, according to Tesla.

At 35 GWh, it would be producing at the originally announced production rate, but Tesla has since increased the planned total capacity to 105 GWh of battery cells and 150 GWh of total battery pack output.

The increase in capacity by the end of the year would support close to 10,000 Model 3 vehicles per week on its own – though Tesla doesn’t plan to achieve that until next year.

Panasonic’s battery cell production was never thought to be a bottleneck in Tesla’s Model 3 production until last month when CEO Yoshio Ito said that the recent Tesla Model 3’s production ramp is creating ‘occasional battery cell shortages’.

It looks like Panasonic is now making some adjustments to make sure it doesn’t happen during the second half of Tesla’s ramp up.

Yet Another Coal-Killing Solar Cell, Bookworm Edition

The Intertubes were buzzing all weekend with news that a solar cell the size of a book could convert enough solar energy to power an entire house. That’s a matter of solar cell efficiency, of course, so let’s take a look and see what’s cooking.

Solar Cell Efficiency, Funnel Cake Style

Speaking of cooking, the new PV research comes from the University of Exeter, which describes the breakthrough as a kind of “funnel” effect:

The idea is similar to pouring a liquid into a container, as we all know it is much more efficient if we use a funnel.

If you ever watched a funnel cake being made (or, for that matter, sausage being made), the funnel effect looks simple enough.

Translating the funnel effect into solar cell efficiency, the idea is to corral an amorphous collection of electrical charges into a more precise area, where they can be transferred into use. That’s where the efficiency magic happens:

While current solar cells are able to convert into electricity around 20 per cent of the energy received from the Sun, the new technique has the potential to convert around 60 per cent of it by funnelling the energy more efficiently.

60% Solar Cell Efficiency? A Strain, Not A Stretch

So much for the big picture. The problem is how to bump the charges from points B-Z over to A without using an actual funnel. The Exeter team took a cue from the IT field, both computer and human:

Manipulating the motion of charge carriers by means of an electric field has been a stepping stone in a wide range of sectors. From electronic circuits to synapses in neural cells, the electric field control over the dynamics of charges underpins a vast range of computing, storage, sensing, communication and energy harvesting tasks.

In particular, the team zeroed in on strain. Strain is a measurement of the original length of a material compared to its length when stretched or compressed.

Engineering strain into a material can enhance its electrical properties. However, conventional materials can only be strained so far before they break apart.

That’s where 2-D materials come in. As described by the Exeter team, atomically thin materials like graphene can sustain relatively high levels of strain. The team anticipates strain levels topping 25%, compared to a peak of just 0.4% for conventional materials.

The implications for solar cell efficiency are clear:

One tantalising charge transport phenomenon that could be accessible owing to large values of strain is the funnelling of photoexcited charges away from the excitation region and towards areas where they can be efficiently extracted.

As for which material they used, graphene is a good guess but that’s not it. The Exeter team used something new on the CleanTechnica radar, hafnium disulphide (hafnium is a silvery gray transition metal).

Coal Is Dying, With Or Without 60% Solar Cell Efficiency

The Exeter team sees their research as a “gateway” for further R&D, so don’t wait around for them if you’re thinking of getting rooftop PV. Go ahead and do it now (for those of us in the US, rooftop solar is still a good deal, PV tariffs or no tariffs).

Meanwhile, here in the US the current level of solar cell efficiency is combining with other forces — natural gas and wind power, to name a few — to knock coal power plants out of the picture.

In the latest development, last week our friends over at Utility Dive noticed something that few others did. The massive Colstrip coal power plant in Montana has been suffering through an unplanned shutdown, but its electricity customers are not suffering along with it.

The Billings Gazette has the details, so do follow this link and support local journalism. The plant’s two older units were already shut down for scheduled maintenance, and while that was happening the operator had to shut down two newer units because their pollution controls were not functioning as designed.

Six utilities own a stake in the Colstrip plant, and so far they have been able to fill the gap with non-coal sources and open market power purchases:

Right now without Colstrip electricity, those utilities are buying electricity on the spot market and doing so without interruption, sometimes at prices lower than the cost of Colstrip power. All six of Colstrip’s owners own other generating facilities, ranging from hydroelectric dams to wind farms and natural gas plants.

It’s not clear if that’s sustainable over the long run, but stay tuned. CleanTechnica is reaching out to Colstrip stakeholders to see if the weeks-long closure could have implications for the plant’s economic viability over the long run.

Tesla tries delivering Model 3 direct to customer’s home, Musk joins for a photo op

According to Musk, it’s convenient and doesn’t waste plastic wrap

Tesla is testing a new delivery method for its Model 3 cars by taking them directly to customers’ homes. In a tweet sent out on Sunday, Musk explained the new delivery system. Instead of an open trailer like traditional delivery, this system uses an enclosed trailer, meaning there’s no need to “waste plastic wrap.” Furthermore, it delivers the vehicle direct from the factory to the owner’s home.

Musk also tagged along, stopping to grab a few photos with Devin Scott, the proud owner of a new blue Model 3. Tesla’s service centers are reportedly overwhelmed with customer deliveries now that Tesla pumps out 5,000 Model 3s a week. This new delivery method could be a way to reduce the strain. While not all the details about this new delivery method are available, it likely isn’t very efficient. The enclosed trailer appears to carry one car.

Furthermore, Tesla likely used a pick-up truck or similar vehicle to tow the trailer — vehicles that aren’t efficient or environmentally friendly. A typical car delivery truck isn’t efficient either, but it benefits from the ability to carry multiple cars at once. It also isn’t clear if this delivery method could be feasible for deliveries far from Tesla’s Fremont, California factory. Considering Tesla seems willing to try anything once, this could be a test. However, it’s unlikely that this kind of delivery method would be feasible. Organizing a fleet of delivery trucks on that scale for one-time deliveries just doesn’t make sense. For saving some “plastic wrap” it seems like a lot of extra complication.

I’m Amazed By How Much I Love These Earbuds

A weird thing about reviewing gadgets for a living is that my neighbors notice. Sometimes they just call me out for getting a lot packages in the mail. Other times, they ask me for advice. One neighbor recently pointed out the $190 Jabra 65t Elite Active truly wireless buds I was wearing in the elevator. “What do you think?” he asked. After taking the earbud out of my head and asking him to repeat the question, I was honest and probably a little bit surprised by my candor. I said, “I love them. You should buy them.”

This is a rare, direct recommendation for me. It’s also not the best advice for everyone. (I’ll come back to that fact in a second.) In writing reviews like this one, I’m always confronted with the should-you-buy decision, and my answer is always complicated by a myriad factors that draw from who’s buying this thing and why they might want it. The earbuds my neighbor noticed, the Jabras, are simply great for my ears. They fit great. They sound great. They work great. But the kicker—what makes these earbuds really stand out—they’re remarkably good for phone calls.

Like I said, the earbuds come from Jabra, a quirky Danish company that got its start making top-notch headsets for businesses and call centers. This bit of company history is the first clue that the microphones on the Elite Active 65t are exceptional. The second clue, I’d argue, is the design.

The Elite Active 65t earbud looks like a slimmed-down version of the Jabra Stealth Bluetooth headset. A little microphone unit extends from the front of the bud and sits just above your earlobe. There are actually four microphones placed around the earbud that also provide wind and ambient noise reduction. The Elite Active earbuds are also rated IP56, which means that they’re dust-proof and sweat-proof. They are not, however, waterproof enough to go underwater. Jabra also sells a non-active version of the earbuds called the Elite 65t. These are cheaper at $170 and look almost identical, except for a shinier plastic case. Both have a luxurious battery life of five hours with two more full charges in the included charging case.

The whole setup works on both models of earbuds. I can listen to a podcast as a subway train roars by and not worry about cranking up the volume. I can also hear the person on the other end of a phone call with fantastic clarity—even on busy city streets—thanks to the surprisingly good noise-cancelling. More impressively, they can hear me, too. Results vary. My mom says she can hear me “great,” while my dad said, “It sounds like you’re in a barrel.” Adjusting the position of the microphone fixed that problem, however.

This is some extraordinary shit, in my opinion. I’ve been using truly wireless earbuds exclusively for well over a year, and for the most part, it’s great. Battery life and audio quality is typically good enough that I can listen to music and podcasts quite enjoyably. Truly wireless earbuds are also small enough that I can take them out and easily put them in my pocket when I’m not using them. No more tangle cords or wearing headphones like a necklace. My biggest complaint with every set of truly wireless buds I’ve tried until now, however, is the simple fact that the microphones suck. The microphones suck on most headphones, to be honest. This means that the promise of making hands-free phone calls is usually supplanted by the reality of making one-handed phone calls.

The Jabras are different, though. I’ve been testing both the Elite Active 65t and the regular Elite 65t on and off for several months. When I use them, I use them for phone calls without worrying about sounding like I’m underwater. Aside from my dad’s jab, I haven’t had any complaints for anyone else I’ve talked to while using the earbuds.

What’s especially impressive is that the battery practically never dies. Other wireless earbuds suffer from batteries that last half as long as the Jabras, and that can be a dealbreaker. But five hours typically lasted me an entire day of using the earbuds on and off. The charging case is also small enough that I could carry it around in my pocket in case I think I might run out of juice.

Now, about size. The Jabra Elite 65t earbuds are not for small ears. Most truly wireless buds—like the Bose SoundSport Free or the Sony Experia Ear Duo—put the bulk of the electronics in a module that floats on the outside of your ear. This means you can swap out different-sized rubber attachments to fit more ear sizes. One exception to this trend is the Apple AirPods, which are just a hunk of plastic. If they don’t fit in your ears, they don’t fit. The other exception is the Jabra Elite 65t. The design includes a big hunk on the backside of the earbud that’s meant to fit flush into your ear, while a rubber bud nestles in to your ear canal. If you have small ears, you might be screwed.

I’m in love with the Jabra earbuds, in part, because they fit my ears perfectly. With most of the bulk hidden behind the sleek exterior, it almost looks like I’m not wearing anything to the casual observer. Meanwhile, I’m thrilled by the excellent microphone, incredible battery life, and terrific sound quality. A small-eared person might not get to enjoy any of these benefits due to simple physics. But not me.

So this is a subjective one if you’re worried about fit. That’s what I told my neighbor, too, after he asked me about buying earbuds. You should try on the Jabra Elite 65t before committing to them. Jump around, shake your head, and make sure they really fit. This is honestly good advice for buying any set of headphones. If you’re going to attach them to your head for several hours a day, you want the headphones or earbuds to fit. And if you can make phone calls with them too, well, you’ve got something special.

README

• Exceptionally good microphone and noise-cancelling for phone calls
• Sleek design fits snugly into your head
• But that sleek design might be too big for your ears