However, the inventor of this battery management technology was not Musk—although Musk has become synonymous with Tesla—but Tesla's current Chief Technology Officer, J.B. Straubel.
Back in 2000, Straubel transformed a Porsche into the world's fastest electric car.
However, after the modifications were completed, when he wanted to drive the car to the race, he encountered a problem: although the modified "electric Porsche" was very fast, its range was only about 30 kilometers, while the race location, Oregon, was 1,300 kilometers away.
What should we do?
The most common approach would be to rent a tow truck and tow the car to Oregon, but Straubel, a graduate of Stanford University's engineering department, came up with an unbelievable method.
Straubel used the rear half of a Volkswagen car as power to propel a modified Porsche to the race.
He bought a Volkswagen for $500, then sawed it in half. Because the rear of the car had an engine and drive wheels, he used this rear half of the Volkswagen as a power source, installing it behind the "electric Porsche" that was going to compete. From the Porsche in front, he could control the engine and rear wheels of the Volkswagen in the back. Straubel used this ingenious method to drive the Porsche to the competition venue.
In this competition, Straubel's modified Porsche broke the world record, becoming the fastest electric car—accelerating to 79.14 mph in 17.27 seconds.
Because of his outstanding performance in the electric vehicle field, Straubel was recruited by Tesla and became Tesla's chief technology officer when he was just 31 years old.
When Straubel joined Tesla, Tesla didn't even have its own factory. Straubel had to lead his technical team to start developing the battery management system next to a small pond in his backyard.
During the research and development process, due to the various rigorous tests, battery explosions frequently occurred, and engineers were often injured or burned. To this day, burn marks can still be seen everywhere on the ground in the backyard of the Straubel family.
The primary problem that Straubel's team needed to solve was how to prevent the batteries from exploding and catching fire, because if this happened, it would be catastrophic. To solve this problem, the key was how to combine these batteries and control their temperature.
Their initial approach was to glue individual batteries together with high-strength adhesive to form a single battery panel.
One evening, when Straubel returned home, he discovered that the solar panel on the table was stuck to it. Straubel realized that this method of directly attaching the battery with glue would cause many unexpected problems and affect the battery's safety.
Tesla car battery
Therefore, Straubel changed the way the batteries were assembled—he divided the original several thousand batteries into 11 modules, and each module contained 621 batteries, much like a wine rack. This approach was far superior to the previous one in terms of both safety and ease of use.
A module in Tesla's battery pack
The next question is how to prevent the module from overheating.
Initially, they used air cooling, since air is free and costs could be reduced. However, with so many batteries, air cooling alone was very ineffective, and lithium-ion batteries are very sensitive to temperature. If the temperature inside the module exceeds 95 degrees Celsius, the battery life will be greatly shortened.
After trying various air cooling methods, including duct cooling, fan cooling, and manifold cooling, they ultimately had to abandon air cooling and switch to a water cooling system. After a series of repeated explorations and research, they finally created a unique water cooling system that allows each battery to be cooled.
In recent years, battery technology has developed rapidly, and various high-performance batteries have emerged. As a result, some people have questioned whether the 18650 battery used by Tesla is the "most perfect". In response, Straubel said: "Where is the most perfect battery? We are neither against it nor will we abandon it. We just haven't found it yet."
Indeed, in terms of energy storage performance and efficiency, some batteries may have surpassed the 18650 batteries used by Tesla. However, as an industry, it is necessary to comprehensively consider various aspects of batteries, such as their stability, safety, production costs, and other practical factors. In particular, safety and stability must be tested through long-term practical applications. Therefore, the 18650 battery is still the best choice for Tesla at present. Combined with Tesla's unique battery management technology, this has created the high-performance Tesla electric vehicle.
