Musk : Model S battery cost less than half the cost per kilowatt hour of Roadster

[EVNow]

Ofcourse, the big news out of the GigaOm interview with Musk is the Model X reveal. But here is something interesting. I've been thinking for sometime that the battery price will halve every 5 years. We had some discussions about it in a different thread.

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I think we’ll also see steady improvements in battery technology. In the case of the Model S, it’s less than half the cost per kilowatt hour of the Roadster. So we’ve made a huge improvement there and the range has increased and the efficiency has improved. I think we’ll continue to see an improvement in the cost in battery energy maybe 7 to 9 percent per year. That may not sound like a lot, but if you compound that over several years it becomes very significant.

The difference between selling S & Roadster is roughly 4 1/2 years (Feb-2008 to Jul-2012). Musk says the cost actually decreased by more than 50%. Ofcourse, it is possible he is comparing the cost now to something much earlier than Feb-2008. Still, this is instructive.

If we take his 9% per year cost reduction, we get to 38% reduction in 5 years.

[Doug_G]

He is probably also taking into account the automation they've added for building the packs, which could dramatically reduce their labor costs. The Roadster batteries were rather more hand-made.

[EVNow]

He is probably also taking into account the automation they've added for building the packs, which could dramatically reduce their labor costs. The Roadster batteries were rather more hand-made.

That is possible - but I read that comment as raw cell costs that Tesla pays ...

[ckessel]

That is possible - but I read that comment as raw cell costs that Tesla pays ...

It's not uncommon that big price drops simply come with automation and volume, so I'd assume it's some combination of factors.

[vfx]

Not sure how "hand made" Roadster batteries are. On a tour of AC Propulsion they were semi automated for making prototype battery packs. I could not imaging Tesla would not have a robot assembly for repetitive tasks.

On the dates you have to think about when they "locked in" The first Roadsters were out in 2006 so maybe they chose a form much earlier than when deliveries started.

[vfx]

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[cinergi]

Not sure how "hand made" Roadster batteries are. On a tour of AC Propulsion they were semi automated for making prototype battery packs. I could not imaging Tesla would not have a robot assembly for repetitive tasks.

On the dates you have to think about when they "locked in" The first Roadsters were out in 2006 so maybe they chose a form much earlier than when deliveries started.

I watched the "soldering" process for the Roadster packs at their facility (Deer Creek? I'm forgetting which one now) -- it was robotic. The entire process wasn't automated for sure, but the ridiculously tedious stuff was automated.