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- Tesla’s “Battery Day” tech won’t reach large-scale production until 2022, Elon Musk tweeted on Monday.
- The electric vehicle company will buy more battery cells but expects “significant shortages” in the future. Analysts expect Tesla to announce plans to produce its own battery cells at the event.
- Premarket Tesla shares dropped following Musk’s tweets.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
The tech Tesla announces at its “Battery Day” on Tuesday won’t reach large-scale production until 2022, the electric vehicle giant’s CEO Elon Musk said on Monday.
Musk said that Tesla will buy more battery cells from Panasonic, LG, and Chinese battery manufacturer CATL, but it expects “significant shortages” in 2022 and beyond, and must “take action” to prevent them, he said. This suggests that the company may announce plans to produce its own battery cells at its Battery Day, as analysts have long-speculated.
Scaling up production of new battery technology comes with “extreme difficulty,” Musk said on Twitter, just hours before the much-anticipated Battery Day.
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 21, 2020
Announcements at Battery Day will relate to Tesla’s long-term vehicle production, Musk said in his Tweets, in particular for three of its upcoming models: the long-haul truck Semi; its pick-up truck Cybertruck; and its updated sports car Roadster. When Tesla announced the redesigned Roadster in 2017, it said the car would be capable of 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds – faster than any other street-legal mass-produced car at the time.
Battery Day is taking place online on Tuesday, immediately after Tesla’s annual stockholder meeting. The company originally scheduled Battery Day for April, but delayed the event because of the coronavirus pandemic.
When Musk first announced the event during a conference call in July 2019, he described Battery Day as "a comprehensive review of cell chemistry, module and pack, architecture, and manufacturing plan that has a clear roadmap to a terawatt-hour per year." Though Musk has said little about the announcements, analysts expect new tech related to Tesla's energy storage and vehicle powertrain products.
This April, Musk said he expects Battery Day will be the "most exciting" in Tesla's history.
After Musk's Tweets, shares in Tesla dropped nearly 4% in the premarket. CATL shares rose by 1.3% in Shanghai.