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Tesla shows off new structural battery pack with 4680 cells at Giga Berlin

Tesla threw a party for the locals to celebrate the upcoming start of production at its Berlin Gigafactory. Kids of all ages dug the carnival rides, the giant Tesla coils shootin’ out sparks, and the obligatory pumpin’ sound-and-light show.

For techies, however, the star of the show was Tesla’s new structural battery pack. A cutaway version was on display, clearly showing how the new 4680 cells are arranged in the pack. Tesla offered visitors a mini-tour of the plant, and some of the many innovations making their debuts here were on display.

Tesla says its 4680 cells will deliver higher energy density and greater thermal stability than the previous-generation 2170 cells. The company is currently producing them on a pilot line in California, and several suppliers are reportedly working on scaling them to mass production. The new battery pack features a “cell-to-pack” design, with no battery modules, which should make it simpler and cheaper to produce. Its structural strength enables it to be joined with Tesla’s massive single-piece front and rear underbody castings, further reducing weight, complexity and cost.

Techie Tesla fans are poring over the pix from the party, and avidly analyzing the arcana of the new battery pack design. The new pack appears to have a slightly simplified cooling system—there are cooling channels snaking between the rows of cells, as in the 2170 packs, but it isn’t clear whether there will be top and bottom cooling as well. Some see signs that the new pack is designed to be more easily recyclable—a reasonable surmise considering Tesla’s growing emphasis on the battery end-of-life phase.

If all goes as planned, the Berlin Gigafactory will begin producing Model Ys in November, and customer deliveries will start in December.

Sources: InsideEVs, Teslarati, Adam Berg, Paul Kelly

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