Reports confirm that Tesla has approved the new batteries produced by China’s BYD, of the Blade type, for use in both North American and European factories. Therefore, the place The German Teslamag has advanced that the Gigafactory Berlin is already forming packages structural battery with BYD cellsintended to equip the Model Y with a capacity of 55 kWh (supposedly 60 kWh gross), less than the 82 kWh accumulator used in the Long Range and Performance.
The use of smaller batteries – to be lighter and cheaper – in Tesla models is not exactly a novelty, since the Model 3 already mounts a package with 60 kWh supplied by CATL (type LFP), a solution used in the Standard Range version with only rear-wheel drive, meanwhile called only Model 3. What the North American brand is doing now is extending the strategy already followed by the sedan to the off road electric, so the Model Y can also offer a lower price to those who can live with a little less autonomy.
As battery production in Berlin has been postponed, models made there do not use the new, larger but also more energy-dense, safer and cheaper 4680 cells, but rather 2170 cells shipped from Shanghai. The possibility of using BYD cells was not foreseen, but one of the arguments in its favor may be its greater efficiency. According to Teslamag, the new package with the smallest capacity of the Model Y is 66kg lighter with BYD cells, compared to Model 3 CATL.
The estimated autonomy of the Model Y with the package BYD is 440 km, that is, only 93 km less than the 533 km of the Model Y with the 82 kWh battery. This is a less important reduction than that verified in the Model 3, which with the small battery announces 491 km, being 111 km of the 602 km of autonomy of the Long Range version. Recall that, during the presentation of the Blade cells, BYD stated that these LFP (lithium iron-phosphate) batteries would be “indestructible”, being able to withstand all kinds of abuse without showing a tendency to burn.
If we take into account the cost savings between the Model 3 with a large battery and Dual Motor and the version with a smaller battery and only rear-wheel drive, which around 8000 euros ($62,990 to €54,990), then a similar gain may be made with the rear-wheel-drive Model Y and less range. Given that the Long Range SUV is proposed for €66,990, many customers would be delighted to see the arrival of a Model Y on the Portuguese market for just €58,000, especially since there is much less range and single-axle drive among the competition.
Source: Observadora
