However, in addition to battery life issues, manufacturers and users are now also troubled by energy degradation. Typically, a battery's energy storage capacity decreases with each charge-discharge cycle, leading to a more severe problem of insufficient battery life.
However, Tesla engineers appear to have found a better solution.
In a recent technical presentation, Tesla’s chief battery scientist, Kurt Kelty, and technology development partner, Jeff Dahn of Dalhousie University in Canada, stated that the research team has made a major breakthrough in battery performance, enabling vehicles to maintain battery degradation to within 5% after 480,000 kilometers of driving.
Jeff Dahn explained that by improving a certain chemical component in NMC ternary lithium batteries, the harmful gases produced during battery operation under high voltage can be limited, and this improved battery cell can still maintain excellent performance after more than 1200 cycles.
By manufacturing individual battery cells into battery packs, 1200 cycles are equivalent to driving a vehicle for approximately 300,000 miles (about 480,000 kilometers). This means that, based on driving 20,000 kilometers per year, Tesla owners can still maintain 95% of the battery capacity after 24 years of continuous driving.
This technology is already being used in Tesla's upcoming new car, the Model 3 sedan, which is scheduled to launch in July this year.
