Tesla's Batteries Have A Capacity Of 3.5 Million Kilometres Says Researcher

Last year, Jeff Dahn, the Tesla battery researcher revealed that the batteries that went inside the vehicles of the world's most valuable automotive had a range of 1.6 million kilometres and now he has presented a new research which shows Tesla's batteries have basically doubled their capacity at 3.5 million kilometres. "Tesla is moving forward at the speed of light. They are up-scaling their factory. They know they are going to need terawatt-hours of batteries for both energy storage and vehicles. It's an incredibly exciting time," said Dahn.

The Tesla Model S has a range of upwards of 400 miles.

Dahn who is considered a pioneer in lithium ion batteries shared that these batteries have a charge cycle of over 15,000 cycles which equates to around 3.5 million kilometres in range. He concludes that the batteries in a medium range electric vehicle will last over 3.5 million kilometres. 

He also revealed that the batteries discharged lesser amounts of capacity after increased use. Its degradation hits a peak once the capacity is between 50 and 25 per cent. This is important because in the US, most people just use the car for 46 km per day on an average. 

Elon Musk recently unveiled new tabless batteries 

This means that even if you were charging a Tesla with around 460 km of range at around 70 per cent for a 46 km commute on a daily basis, the car would face minimal battery degradation. In fact, the degradation will be so low that the car will well beyond its date nor use.

But this ties in with a couple of elements to Tesla's strategy. Musk has already outlined that batteries will have to last more than 1 million miles for robot taxis. He has also outlined plans to allow users to use the battery on their Tesla to feedback power back to the grid.