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Elon Musk posts Tesla Battery Day update, hints at mid-May event

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Those who have been waiting for Tesla’s 2020 Battery Day will now have to wait a little longer. Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the event would “most likely” take place in mid-May, roughly one month after its originally intended date. “Hard to predict dates right now. Most likely postponed to mid May,” Musk wrote on Twitter as a response to a Tesla community member asking about the event.

The reason for the delay in the event seems to be related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This virus has halted production lines in Fremont and Buffalo and has caused the company to adapt to new delivery processes to deliver new electric cars to their customers. Considering that Tesla events usually involve presentations to groups of people, Battery Day may involve viewers being packed in a large room. Such does not conform to current social distancing suggestions to prevent the spread of the virus.

Tesla’s Battery Day will outline the company’s plans for battery development for future vehicles and energy solutions. Musk stated the event would be geared toward a review of Tesla’s cell chemistry, module and pack, architecture, and the company’s manufacturing plan that will detail how it can reach a terawatt-hour per year of battery production. “We have a very compelling strategy. I mean, we are super deep in cell. Super deep. Cell through battery,” Musk said.

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Tesla’s ultimate goal with its cars is to reach price parity with its gas counterparts as soon as possible. Battery improvements would decrease the cost of vehicles tremendously, as the production of battery packs is one of the most expensive stages in EV manufacturing. Expectations suggest that Tesla has gotten its battery costs down to $100 per kWh, and Battery Day was widely speculated to be an event that discusses such a milestone.

Tesla has crafted a relationship with many cell manufacturers across the world, like Panasonic, which supplies the company’s lithium-ion vehicle batteries. In China, LG Chem and CATL are responsible for the task. The company has also made several acquisitions of battery research companies whose technologies can improve the quality of cells in the long term. One of these companies is Maxwell Technologies, whose research with ultracapacitors and dry electrode technologies could very well improve Tesla’s batteries in terms of quality and longevity.

This could lead to the development a “1-million mile battery,” which Tesla has predicted for its vehicles in the future. Researcher Jeff Dahn, a world-renowned battery specialist whose team at Dalhousie University, says that a battery capable of 1-million miles is more than feasible. This battery goal is attainable, especially considering the Dahn team’s development of pouch cells that have extended life.

Tesla held a similar event in 2019, called “Tesla Autonomy Day,” that outlined the company’s plans to complete its Full Self-Driving suite. However, it seems Tesla’s plans for 2020 are primarily focused on battery and energy storage, starting with Battery Day.

Fremont and Giga New York are poised to reopen on May 4, ending an over one-month shutdown. It is safe to assume that if this date is pushed back into late May or even early June, Battery Day could once again be delayed to ensure the safety of its attendees.

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Tesla teases new market entrance with confusing and cryptic message

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(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla teased its entrance into a new market with a confusing and what appeared to be cryptic message on the social media platform X.

The company has been teasing its entrance into several markets, including Africa, which would be a first, and South America, where it only operates in Chile.

In September, Tesla started creating active job postings for the Colombian market, hinting it would expand its presence in South America and launch in a new country for the first time in two years.

Tesla job postings seem to show next surprise market entry

The jobs were related to various roles, including Associate Sales Manager, Advisors in Sales and Delivery, and Service Technicians. These are all roles that would indicate Tesla is planning to launch a wide-scale effort to sell, manage, and repair vehicles in the market.

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Last night, Tesla posted its latest hint, a cryptic video that seems to show the outline of Colombia, teasing its closer than ever to market entry:

This would be the next expansion into a continent where it does not have much of a presence for Tesla. Currently, there are only two Supercharger locations on the entire continent, and they’re both in Chile.

Tesla will obviously need to expand upon this crucial part of the ownership experience to enable a more confident consumer base in South America as a whole. However, it is not impossible, as many other EV charging infrastructures are available, and home charging is always a suitable option for those who have access to it.

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Surprisingly, Tesla seems to be more concerned about these middle-market countries as opposed to the larger markets in South America, but that could be by design.

If Tesla were to launch in Brazil initially, it may not be able to handle the uptick in demand, and infrastructure expansion could be more difficult. Brazil may be on its list in the upcoming years, but not as of right now.

@teslarati 🚨🚨 Tesla Full Self-Driving and Yap is the best driving experience #tesla #fsd #yapping ♬ I Run – HAVEN.

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Tesla expands crucial Supercharging feature for easier access

It is a useful tool, especially during hours of congestion. However, it has not been super effective for those who drive non-Tesla EVs, as other OEMs use UI platforms like Google’s Android Auto or Apple’s iOS.

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tesla supercharger
Credit: Tesla

Tesla has expanded a crucial Supercharging feature that helps owners identify stall availability at nearby locations.

Tesla said on Tuesday night that its “Live Availability” feature, which shows EV owners how many stalls are available at a Supercharger station, to Google Maps, a third-party app:

Already offering it in its own vehicles, the Live Availability feature that Teslas have is a helpful feature that helps you choose an appropriate station with plugs that are immediately available.

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A number on an icon where the Supercharger is located lets EV drivers know how many stalls are available.

It is a useful tool, especially during hours of congestion. However, it has not been super effective for those who drive non-Tesla EVs, as other OEMs use UI platforms like Google’s Android Auto or Apple’s iOS.

Essentially, when those drivers needed to charge at a Supercharger that enables non-Tesla EVs to plug in, there was a bit more of a gamble. There was no guarantee that a plug would be available, and with no way to see how many are open, it was a risk.

Tesla adding this feature allows people to have a more convenient and easier-to-use experience if they are in a non-Tesla EV. With the already expansive Supercharger Network being available to so many EV owners, there is more congestion than ever.

This new feature makes the entire experience better for all owners, especially as there is more transparency regarding the availability of plugs at Supercharger stalls.

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It will be interesting to see if Tesla is able to expand on this new move, as Apple Maps compatibility is an obvious goal of the company’s in the future, we could imagine. In fact, this is one of the first times an Android Auto feature is available to those owners before it became an option for iOS users.

Apple owners tend to get priority with new features within the Tesla App itself.

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Elon Musk’s Boring Co goes extra hard in Nashville with first rock-crushing TBM

The Boring Company’s machine for the project is now in final testing.

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Credit: The Boring Company/X

The Boring Company is gearing up to tackle one of its toughest projects yet, a new tunnel system beneath Nashville’s notoriously tough limestone terrain. Unlike the soft-soil conditions of Las Vegas and Austin, the Music City Loop will require a “hard-rock” boring machine capable of drilling through dense, erosion-resistant bedrock. 

The Boring Company’s machine for the project is now in final testing.

A boring hard-rock tunneling machine

The Boring Company revealed on X that its new hard-rock TBM can generate up to 4 million pounds of grip force and 1.5 million pounds of maximum thrust load. It also features a 15-filter dust removal system designed to keep operations clean and efficient during excavation even in places where hard rock is present.

Previous Boring Co. projects, including its Loop tunnels in Las Vegas, Austin, and Bastrop, were dug primarily through soft soils. Nashville’s geology, however, poses a different challenge. Boring Company CEO and President Steve Davis mentioned this challenge during the project’s announcement in late July.

“It’s a tough place to tunnel, Nashville. If we were optimizing for the easiest places to tunnel, it would not be here. You have extremely hard rock, like way harder than it should be. It’s an engineering problem that’s fairly easy and straightforward to solve,” Davis said.

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Nashville’s limestone terrain

Experts have stated that the city’s subsurface conditions make it one of the more complex tunneling environments in the U.S. The Outer Nashville Basin is composed of cherty Mississippian-age limestone, a strong yet soluble rock that can dissolve over time, creating underground voids and caves, as noted in a report from The Tennessean.

Jakob Walter, the founder and principal engineer of Haushepherd, shared his thoughts on these challenges. “Limestone is generally a stable sedimentary bedrock material with strength parameters that are favorable for tunneling. Limestone is however fairly soluble when compared to other rack materials, and can dissolve over long periods of time when exposed to water. 

“Unexpected encounters with these features while tunneling can result in significant construction delays and potential instability of the excavation. In urban locations, structures at the ground surface should also be constantly monitored with robotic total stations or similar surveying equipment to identify any early signs of movement or distress,” he said.

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