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Tesla teardown expert breaks down the new 4680 Battery Pack

Credit: YouTube | Sandy Munro

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Tesla teardown expert Sandy Munro recently recreated what he believes will be the new 4680 Battery Pack by recreating the cell housing unit for a new video. Munro is an extremely familiar figure to Tesla fans as he spent some time breaking down both the Model 3 sedan and, more recently, the Model Y crossover. However, the design expert, along with his team of highly-qualified engineers, composed a copy of the 4680 cell pack, which will be used in future Tesla models to increase power, energy, and range.

Munro admits that this may not be exactly what Tesla will use in its future vehicles, but this could likely be extremely similar to what the electric automaker will introduce. For those that aren’t familiar, the Model 3 and Model Y previously used Tesla’s 2170 cells, which were able to provide superior performance compared to the 18650 cells that were used in the Model S and Model X. However, the electric automaker had been working with Jeff Dahn and other researchers at Dalhousie University in Canada to develop new, revolutionary cells that would provide longer lifespans with more power and more energy.

Interestingly, these cells with higher performance would dramatically decrease Tesla’s cars’ cost, as the materials they used would be easier to obtain and cheaper to produce. Creating a more efficient and cost-effective battery cell was the main strategy in having Tesla’s vehicles comparable with gas cars in terms of cost.

Credit: Munro and Associates

Tesla uses 4,416 2170 cells in the Model Y, but this number is significantly lower with the 4680 cells due to their larger size, which carries significantly more energy and power than the previous cell. Munro states that only 960 cells will be used in the new battery pack, and with the increases in range, power, and energy, Tesla is truly onto something remarkable that will only increase their lead in the EV sector.

“We are focusing our attention on this, which is so much better than what they had with the 2170,” Munro said.

Tesla rolled out the new 4680 cell at its highly-anticipated Battery Day event on September 22nd. CEO Elon Musk summarized Tesla’s plan to begin building a more affordable battery cell, ultimately leading to a more affordable vehicle. In summation, Tesla plans to decrease the cost of cell manufacturing by a significant amount and decrease the cost of money per kilowatt-hour by up to 56% through design, production efficiencies, and material sourcing.

One of Tesla’s biggest advantages in designing its own cells and packs is that it can significantly reduce costs while also increasing the ability to fix issues when they occur. One of the strategies with its battery cells from the very beginning was to individualize each cell so it was easier be traced and replaced if any issues were to occur. Teslarati covered a recent replacement of a Model S battery cell showed the process for fixing a pack when a cell goes awry.

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The new 4680 cells have been used for several months, Elon Musk said in an interview earlier this year. However, not all vehicles utilize the new cells as the Kato Road cell production facility near Tesla’s Fremont factory is not producing enough yet. However, the increased production will eventually lead to Tesla using the 4680 batteries exclusively within its cars, which will lead to higher range ratings and increased performance specs, making Tesla’s EVs even more superior to its competitors.

Munro’s full 4680 pack breakdown is available below.

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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Elon Musk

The Boring Company’s latest Tesla tunnel truck mod “fits like a glove”

The Boring Company has modified a Tesla powered tunnel truck to carry freight containers underground.

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The Boring Company has found a second job for the Tesla hardware it already runs underground. In a post on X, Elon Musk’s tunneling company showed its latest Prufrock Liner Truck modified to carry a standard 20 foot shipping container. “Using TBC tunnels to transport freight,” the company wrote. “The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20′ shipping container. Fits like a glove!”

The photo shows a red container sitting on a long, low white chassis parked outside, with drive hardware visible at one end. The Boring Company did not say where or when freight hauling would start, which customers it has in mind, or how many trucks it is converting.

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Until now, the liner trucks have hauled concrete. Teslarati reported in August on Liner Truck 3, which uses Model 3 battery packs and drive units to move more than 22,000 pounds of precast tunnel segments to the boring machine. It has 28 miles of range, tops out at 12 mph, and is piloted remotely from the company’s operations center in Texas. The freight version appears to be the same platform with a different bed, and The Boring Company has not said whether it will also be remotely piloted.

Freight has been on the company’s menu for years. When TBC updated its product lineup in 2021, its freight tunnel was described as sized to fit a standard shipping container, “barely.” The company later used the idea at Tesla’s own factory, where Prufrock 3 dug a tunnel to Giga Texas that now moves finished Cybertrucks away from the production line.

The Boring Company closed a $3 billion Series D in September at a $23 billion valuation, and Teslarati has covered how that money is tied to a UAE tunneling push and a faster Nashville build. In Nashville, Prufrock MB1 and MB2 are mining at the same time, and a third machine is expected to launch in late October. Each machine needs a steady supply of liner trucks, so any design that works for segments and containers alike gives the company more use out of the same Tesla parts.

The Vegas Loop remains the only Boring Company system open to the public, and it moves passengers in Tesla vehicles. A freight service would be a separate product, and the post gave no indication that one is close to launch. For now, it is a truck, a container and a short caption saying they fit together.

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Elon Musk will give ‘every kid in America’ a SpaceX share in 2027

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Credit: Grok Imagine

Elon Musk said he is planning to give “every one of his SpaceX shares to every kid in America” in 2027, stating that “this will be the first of many.”

SpaceX went public earlier this year, and its stock price has been relatively stable since leveling off shortly after its IPO. Based on its current price, it’s a gift of just over $10 billion to children across the United States.

It appears to be closely related to President Donald Trump’s bank accounts for children, which were set up earlier this year as Trump Accounts.

Just hours earlier, Anthropic had announced the establishment of its Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, “a new wholly-owned entity dedicated entirely to public benefit.” Musk responded by stating he recommended “giving the shares directly to the public,” and that he would be doing it that way.

Just a little bit later, Musk said children across the U.S. would be getting a share from him:

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There are roughly 70 million children, meaning someone under the age of 18, in the United States, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Musk’s ownership of SpaceX stock shows he has around 849 million Class A shares of SpaceX stock, according to filings with the SEC.

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Elon Musk reveals why Boring Co’s biggest East Coast project never happened

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(Credit: The Boring Company)

Elon Musk revealed in a post on X that “Permits were impossible to get,” explaining the fate of The Boring Company’s most ambitious East Coast proposal.

The comment responded to a query about what became of his July 20, 2017 announcement that he had “just received verbal govt approval” for an underground Hyperloop connecting New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., capable of carrying passengers from the Big Apple to the Nation’s Capital in just 29 minutes.

The Boring Company receives verbal ‘approval’ to build NY to DC Hyperloop tunnel

The 2017 post, which envisioned city-center stations and multiple elevators in each city, sparked immediate scrutiny. Local and state officials in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C. said they had no knowledge of any approval. A White House spokesperson confirmed only “promising conversations” about the transformative infrastructure.

Musk clarified shortly after that there was “still a lot of work” to do for formal approvals.

Limited progress followed, as Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s administration issued a conditional utility permit and supported work near Fort Meade. In 2018, Washington, D.C., granted a preliminary permit for site preparation and excavation on a vacant lot at 53 New York Ave. NE in the NoMa neighborhood, which The Boring Company said could become a station.

A draft environmental assessment for a D.C.-Baltimore segment was released in 2019. Yet, by April 2021, the company had removed the project from its website, and the Federal Highway Administration reported receiving no indication of further interest. Communication with Maryland officials had ceased.

The full corridor would have required coordination among the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, the Federal Highway Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, and other agencies.

Environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, utility clearances, and approvals for novel infrastructure added to the overall complexity of the project and its approval.

Speculation on the permitting barriers centers around a few factors, but a multi-state, multi-level route involving unproven high-speed vacuum-tube technology inherently triggers exhaustive safety, environmental, and engineering reviews that can stretch for years, even for conventional projects.

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There are also other elements, of course, like officials who may face political exposure if a privately funded, untested system encountered anything such as cost overruns, delays, or safety issues. On the outset of this project, there were limited things such as engineering plans or demonstrated technology maturity, which also added to the potential skepticism.

The East Coast vision for Boring Co., once framed as a privately funded revolution that could reshape Northeast travel, quietly ended without construction of the promised network. Musk’s recent statement frames the outcome as a regulatory impasse, unfortunate but not unexpected.

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