Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said in a tweet yesterday that a “tentative date” for what’s being called the “Battery Day” is set for September 15.
The event will also coincide with a Tesla shareholder meeting, and include a tour of the firm’s battery cell production system, Musk added.
Last Saturday, Musk said that the annual shareholder meeting, initially pegged for July 7, would have to be delayed due to Covid-19 measures.
He tweeted, in reply to a question on the meeting, that “we will have to postpone annual shareholder meeting, as still no large gathering allowed by July 7.”
“Not sure of new date, but am guessing maybe a month or so later,” the Tesla CEO added.
But for many, it’s the so-called Battery Day event that will be hotly anticipated.
Musk has reportedly been teasing the Battery Day event for months. (Image: Brendan Smialowski / Getty)
Musk has, for months, been hyping up investors and teasing rivals with what is allegedly a leap forward in battery technology.
Anticipation for the event has only been compounded by the fact that it’s been delayed a number of times.
According to plans obtained by Reuters, new, low-cost batteries that are designed to last for millions of miles – not on a single charge, presumably – are part of Musk’s scheme.
Other supposed plans include setting up a high-speed and largely automatic “terafactory” which would be 30 times the size of Tesla’s already cavernous “gigafactory” in Nevada.
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Tesla is planning to use its cars to power the national grid, not just charge from it. (Image: Smith Collection / Gado / Getty)
And the firm is also reportedly working on how to recycle and recovery existing material from dead batteries such as nickel, cobalt, and lithium, which are expensive metals.
The new battery tech would enable Tesla to sell their cars at or lower than the price of a gasoline vehicle, Reuters adds.
Such new tech is important not just for the cars themselves, but also for Tesla’s goal to expand its ambitions outside of electric car production and into powering national grids.
The idea is that Tesla’s global fleet of vehicles are able to connect to and share power with the grid as well as charging from it.
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Tesla’s huge Gigafactory battery plant under construction in Nevada back in 2015. The Terafactory will apparently be 30x bigger. (Image: David Calvert / The Washington Post / Getty)
Sources told Reuters that the technology is enabled by changes in the chemical design of the batteries, including cutting down on the use of cobalt or removing it entirely.
This is in addition to the use of chemicals and materials that reduce internal stresses that enable batteries the store energy for more time, the sources reportedly added.
Reuters reported that the new battery is planned to launch first in Tesla models in China, though Tesla did not comment.
Tesla currently produces batteries at its gigafactory plant in Nevada in a joint operation with Panasonic.
The new battery developments are reported to be rolling out in China before anywhere else. (Image: Sjoerd van der Wal / Getty)
Meanwhile, CNBC reports that Tesla is facing pressure from advisors Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) over Robyn Denholm, chair of the company’s board.
Since Mr Denholm was appointed to the position in 2018, there has been a steep rise in the amount of shares pledged by the directors and executives of the company – including Musk – and advisors have expressed concerns over Tesla’s high pay for directors, CNBC adds.
The two advisors have reportedly urged shareholders to vote against Mr Denholm’s reelection to the position.
Tesla shareholders have also been asked by Nia Impact Capital to vote against current board recommendations and require Tesla to report details about the effects of mandatory arbitration on its employees, CNBC said.