Charging



Also, here is some battery reports from the Roadster and Nissan Leaf from Plug In America.Having a larger battery also helps here, since charging and discharging a 100 mile range car to cover 100,000 miles would take 1,000 cycles, while charging and discharging a 250 mile range car to cover 100,000 miles will only take 400 cycles. Therefore, a longer range car (due to a larger battery) will be able to achieve longer battery life. And again, Tesla's technology within the BMS (battery management system) and the design of the pack only helps. For example, Tesla was really paying attention to good thermal management with their cells, and they have incorporated module level thermal management material, intumescent goo to resist thermal runway, and even a battery coolant sleeve/jacket. Here is Tesla's related IP:

Energy Density





Red is 100% Tesla cars, orange is Tesla inside, and green is non-Tesla vehicles)



Tesla has the lowest battery cost in the electric car industry currently, the only question is how much lower are Tesla's costs. Estimates range from $200-$300 for Tesla's battery pack, and they range from $160-$200 for Tesla's cells. Here are some sources for estimated battery costs:Based on these sources, I believe that it is reasonable to narrow down Tesla's current costs to $240-$275/kWh for the battery pack. I come up with the low end of that range by taking the $180/kWh cell level estimate and assuming that it is 75% of the cost of the battery pack. For the high end, I am using a mix of estimates. In August 2013, as JB Straubel stated, the battery costs 1/4ths of the car's sale price. The Model S starts at $71,070, and 1/4th of that is $17,767.5 for the 60 kWh battery pack, which is $296.125/kWh. Assuming this has declined at about 5% over the last year and a half (which is conservative, since the estimated improvement every year in energy density and/or cost is 7%), the current price would be about $274/kWh, which is in line with Lux Research and Anderman's projected cost of $260/kWh in 2016 for the high end.Here is Navigant's estimates for other electric car batteries (2013 estimates and 2015 projections look good, but I would take the 2020 projection with a HUGE grain of salt):