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Tesla battery researchers open path to all-electric range extender concept
Tesla has solidified itself as an industry leader when it comes to electric vehicles and their range. However, an EV’s range could always be improved, and the company has taken great efforts to make this possible. One of these was outlined by Tesla’s battery researchers, who recently published the results of a test that cycles lithium metal on graphite to form hybrid lithium-ion/lithium metal cells. This particular innovation could open the door to an all-electric range extender.
Other automakers have used range extenders in the past, but they’ve been comprised of small petrol-powered engines that are used as a generator to recharge the vehicle’s battery pack when it is low on range. The process of cycling lithium metal on graphite, on the other hand, could lead to a 20% higher energy density than the traditional lithium-ion cells that power the Tesla’s vehicles.
Tesla’s battery research team, led by Jeff Dahn of Dalhousie University, has found a way to create a range extender of sorts without having to keep a small gas engine in the vehicle. Tesla detailed its findings in a research paper that was published to ScienceDirect on April 30. Titled “Cycling Lithium Metal on Graphite to Form Hybrid Lithium-Ion/Lithium Metal Cells,” Dahn and his researchers outlined the testing process.
The findings proved a possible 20% increase in range when using the range extender, which is comprised of “hybrid cells” that use Lithium-Ion and Lithium Metal. The cells also used an optimized electrolyte, and pressure enabled reversible plating on graphite.
The paper states:
“A hybrid anode cell design is proposed involving lithium metal plating on top of graphite that provides a 20% increase in energy density over conventional lithium-ion cells. Pouch cells with hybrid graphite-lithium metal anodes cycled with conventional electrolytes fell below 80% capacity in under 15 cycles. However, with a dual-salt electrolyte and applied mechanical pressure optimized for lithium metal cycling, hybrid cells achieved over 150 full (100% utilization) cycles before falling below 80% capacity with a CE of 99.6% for lithium metal plating on graphite.
“We also found that intermittent high energy (100% utilization) cycles utilizing lithium metal can be dispersed among hundreds of conventional lithium-ion cycles where only the graphite is utilized. Operating the cell with this intermittent protocol shows minimal impact to the underlying graphite capacity. Therefore, these hybrid cells can operate well in “lithium-ion mode” with periodic high energy full cycles accessing the lithium metal capacity.”
Tesla’s new findings show that increased energy density is made possible with the hybrid concept. When combining lithium-ion cells with lithium metal, energy density improves as the graphite anode utilized in traditional lithium-ion cells is not capable of handling the increased energy. The utilization of a dual-salt electrolyte also increases density and decreases battery cell degradation.
Tesla’s battery researchers described the advantages of the hybrid lithium-ion/lithium metal cells in the discussion below.
“If an electric vehicle with a conventional lithium-ion battery can deliver a range of 400 km, then hybrid cells could enable a range of 480 km. By capping the upper cut-off voltage of hybrid cells to operate in lithium-ion mode, the average cell voltage and delivered capacity will decrease. As a result, operating a hybrid cell in lithium-ion mode delivers an energy density of 530Wh/L, about 25% less than a conventional lithium-ion cell.
“This would result in a range of 300 km. In a study of driving behavior for EVs, Smart et al.34 showed that only 1% of daily trips are longer than 325 km on average. Therefore, operating hybrid cells most of the time in lithium-ion mode enabling a range of 300 km, while periodically using the lithium metal portion for long > 400 km trips, as mimicked by this testing protocol, should be viable for most drivers.”
It should be noted that the Tesla battery researchers’ study is only in their initial stages. Thus, it may take some time before the technology gets rolled out to Tesla’s fleet. The wait would likely be worth it though, as the hybrid cells could open the door to all-electric vehicles with range extender features. This would be incredibly useful for electric vehicle owners who take long road trips with family, and it could also be a notable step towards EVs gaining range parity with their petrol-powered counterparts.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) closed at an all-time high on Tuesday, jumping over 3 percent during the day and finishing at $489.88.
The price beats the previous record close, which was $479.86.
Shares have had a crazy year, dipping more than 40 percent from the start of the year. The stock then started to recover once again around late April, when its price started to climb back up from the low $200 level.
This week, Tesla started to climb toward its highest levels ever, as it was revealed on Sunday that the company was testing driverless Robotaxis in Austin. The spike in value pushed the company’s valuation to $1.63 trillion.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
It is the seventh-most valuable company on the market currently, trailing Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.
Shares closed up $14.57 today, up over 3 percent.
The stock has gone through a lot this year, as previously mentioned. Shares tumbled in Q1 due to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which pulled his attention away from his companies and left a major overhang on their valuations.
However, things started to rebound halfway through the year, and as the government started to phase out the $7,500 tax credit, demand spiked as consumers tried to take advantage of it.
Q3 deliveries were the highest in company history, and Tesla responded to the loss of the tax credit with the launch of the Model 3 and Model Y Standard.
Additionally, analysts have announced high expectations this week for the company on Wall Street as Robotaxi continues to be the focus. With autonomy within Tesla’s sights, things are moving in the direction of Robotaxi being a major catalyst for growth on the Street in the coming year.
Elon Musk
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs says.
Tesla is in the process of rolling out its Robotaxi platform to areas outside of Austin and the California Bay Area. It has plans to launch in five additional cities, including Houston, Dallas, Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
However, the company’s expansion is not what the focus needs to be, according to Delaney. It’s the speed of deployment.
The analyst said:
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Profitability will come as the Robotaxi fleet expands. Making that money will be dependent on when Tesla can initiate rides in more areas, giving more customers access to the program.
There are some additional things that the company needs to make happen ahead of the major Robotaxi expansion, one of those things is launching driverless rides in Austin, the first city in which it launched the program.
This week, Tesla started testing driverless Robotaxi rides in Austin, as two different Model Y units were spotted with no occupants, a huge step in the company’s plans for the ride-sharing platform.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
CEO Elon Musk has been hoping to remove Safety Monitors from Robotaxis in Austin for several months, first mentioning the plan to have them out by the end of 2025 in September. He confirmed on Sunday that Tesla had officially removed vehicle occupants and started testing truly unsupervised rides.
Although Safety Monitors in Austin have been sitting in the passenger’s seat, they have still had the ability to override things in case of an emergency. After all, the ultimate goal was safety and avoiding any accidents or injuries.
Goldman Sachs reiterated its ‘Neutral’ rating and its $400 price target. Delaney said, “Tesla is making progress with its autonomous technology,” and recent developments make it evident that this is true.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets bold Robotaxi prediction from Wall Street firm
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) received a bold Robotaxi prediction from Morgan Stanley, which anticipates a dramatic increase in the size of the company’s autonomous ride-hailing suite in the coming years.
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Percoco dug into the Robotaxi fleet and its expansion in the coming years in his latest note, released on Tuesday. The firm expects Tesla to increase the Robotaxi fleet size to 1,000 vehicles in 2026. However, that’s small-scale compared to what they expect from Tesla in a decade.
Tesla expands Robotaxi app access once again, this time on a global scale
By 2035, Morgan Stanley believes there will be one million Robotaxis on the road across multiple cities, a major jump and a considerable fleet size. We assume this means the fleet of vehicles Tesla will operate internally, and not including passenger-owned vehicles that could be added through software updates.
He also listed three specific catalysts that investors should pay attention to, as these will represent the company being on track to achieve its Robotaxi dreams:
- Opening Robotaxi to the public without a Safety Monitor. Timing is unclear, but it appears that Tesla is getting closer by the day.
- Improvement in safety metrics without the Safety Monitor. Tesla’s ability to improve its safety metrics as it scales miles driven without the Safety Monitor is imperative as it looks to scale in new states and cities in 2026.
- Cybercab start of production, targeted for April 2026. Tesla’s Cybercab is a purpose-built vehicle (no steering wheel or pedals, only two seats) that is expected to be produced through its state-of-the-art unboxed manufacturing process, offering further cost reductions and thus accelerating adoption over time.
Robotaxi stands to be one of Tesla’s most significant revenue contributors, especially as the company plans to continue expanding its ride-hailing service across the world in the coming years.
Its current deployment strategy is controlled and conservative to avoid any drastic and potentially program-ruining incidents.
So far, the program, which is active in Austin and the California Bay Area, has been widely successful.
Tesla stock closes at all-time high on heels of Robotaxi progress
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
