BMW Runs Away with Tesla's 4680 Battery Idea

Tesla has reinvented and disrupted the entire Auto industry and became the best at those technologies that they have pioneered for years but things have changed now when Tesla invents something they don't always become the best at it because other brands have figured out that you know they can just borrow some of what Tesla invents and become sometimes better at it than Tesla itself BMW out of All Brands it seems to be a beneficiary of that phenomenal what that technology is and is BMW really beating Tesla at its own game well I'll tell you all about it in just a second and as always I'll take questions from you my live audience and we're going to start right now [Music] welcome to E4 electric where I reveal the truth behind the electric car headlines so if you dig that definitely click on that subscribe button and the Bell notification icon so you don't miss anything moving forward alright so first of all this is my last live stream from here in California where I lived for 30 years I am leaving and uh the video about why and where I'm going and honestly I might actually be leaving the United States as well that video is up I know you will have some questions and hold on to those because I will answer them you know probably closer to the end of this live stream but for now let's talk about this article that I saw the other day when I was scrolling through my Google field feed and their article was titled BMW beating Tesla at its own game uh there it is and I was like what game like how can a BMW be beating Tesla at anything really I I mean unless it's making the front of your car look like a monkey butt that then yes BMW is definitely the champ pun intended but apparently the article was talking about 4680 battery series you know these babies right here it's amazing what you can get at uh Etsy really anything can be a 3D printer uh so a bit of a smuggling device too I guess um so you know obviously when they were unveiled a couple of years ago it was a big breakthrough because of well many things that Elon told us um and Tesla has launched their um original production line in Fremont then they tried to move the production to a Berlin where their new Factory is but because of a lot of logistical issues they now looks like are moving into taxes but meanwhile producing it still here in Fremont California literally 10 minutes away from here for at least for the next few days because I'm leaving on Sunday now uh by the end of January of this year they've actually ended up making a million of these which does look like a lot but it actually is only enough for about a thousand of model wise because that's where they're putting them in uh but by the end of this quarter they're targeting a thousand of actual cars using these batteries per week and that's actually something now um however if you noticed uh the cars that are being produced with these batteries are not really cheaper as a matter of fact you know all Tesla including Tesla Model y prices has gone up this year so they're not cheaper and also they're not going any further in terms of range um also Elon Musk just mentioned that 4680s are not going into the semi trucks that are now being delivered in this quarter to the customers finally after five years so things have not gone as planned uh which is you know not surprising this is a very very new technology now about a year ago once Lucid has started delivering their uh elusive air sedan uh and you know got some street cred because they became the top EV with the longest range over Tesla for the first time anybody was able to do that and of course Lucid CEO Peter rollerson has been taking a lot of you know beatings on social media from Elon so he fired back and he said you know you know obviously 4680s are a good step forward but you know people think of this as a huge breakthrough and they're really just fantasy he was kind of suggesting that you know it's kind of a same old technology just in a better packaging well a lot of people obviously didn't really like that uh including Sandy Monroe who at that time was still a part of this Channel and was a weekly guest and when I ran into him at the Los Angeles Auto Show well we didn't run into each other it was that date was scheduled um you know and we were talking about it you know Sandy wasn't very happy with that and let me play that clip to you in just a second but before that let me talk about the sponsor because this sponsor is a bit special and I usually don't do one-offs usually my sponsors you know uh um become partners for a long time but this one uh it's a charity that approached me several days ago because they have something really cool and the Tesla raffle that they're doing is literally just about to happen so do you want to win a Tesla Model S plaid this week well our friends at the non-profit a sparrow worldwide are selling raffle tickets to help families in need tickets are only 150 which is actually one of the lowest I've seen in these Raffles and the drawing is this Saturday only about 2 000 tickets have been sold right now so you have a pretty good chance of winning so go to the freedom raffle Link in the description of this video and get one of the best chances to win a Tesla Model S pled while contributing to a good cause so please check them out and like I said even if you're just being selfish mathematically this appears to be a pretty damn good deal to me all right so I let's get back to Sandy Monroe um let me play you a clip of what he said in response to Peter rollerson claiming that you know 4680s uh are basically a fantasy this is what he had to say now uh we've talked about lucid using 2170s um now Tesla is moving to 40 uh 46 80s and uh yeah and this is where you might not like where this conversation is going to go because you know funeral is on the CEO of lucid and I basically recently came out and said listen 4680s is nothing but a fancy packaging there's no breakthrough there there are some you know advantages but mainly is you know it's it's it's just a fancy package it's bigger battery just has more energy and it's a wash as far as between that and 2170s um you know he couldn't say it before having the best range in business now he's got some credibility um what's a you without swearing oh no please we can I was going to say please so uh for you people watching um we are at the LA Auto Show it's it's been a long day I usually had expletives but it's with Alex show I don't wanna I don't want to ruin anything but anyway I have delicate years and delicate years and so the lady downstairs and I uh at the bar uh we hit it off and um we're both old and she gave me a lot of um a lot to drink and it's a good thing because right now my head is spinning trying to figure out how to not uh throw Mr Wilson under the bus but I can't think of anything so here it comes that's crap all right so well you know one thing about Sandy you got to give it to him you never have to guess what he's thinking uh so he went on to talk about all the benefits that Elon Musk uh uh you know was outlining about the batteries and you know bottom line is you know we could only rely and send you could only rely on what Elon uh was telling us obviously one mistake I think people make a lot of times is they still take Elon for his word indefinitely in terms of timing because you know this 4680s you know sooner or later they will become I'm assuming hoping uh what Elon said however you know Sandy himself um ended up doing some teardowns obviously uh and also there were tear Downs done by others including the University of California what is it uh UC San Diego and so both kind of confirmed that essentially 4680 cells at least that are going into Teslas right now are basically the same chemistry same thing as 21 70s uh just in a different casing uh now granted because of the bigger casing uh there are many benefits including the energy density but apparently the walls of this are like three times as thick as 2170s which kind of you know rolls that theory back but there were two biggest benefits that right now have not made it yet I'm assuming into this 4680s uh first of all they use graphite and not silicon as promised and secondly um you know Elon Musk said that these are going to be cobalt-free high nickel cathode and you know send his own tear down you know analyze it and said there nope they're pretty much the same as you know the same nmc 811 uh chemistry so as you you can see you know it does look like it is some progress because they are making them and they're making more and more of them but not exactly what's been promised and don't get me wrong Innovation is hard I mean you know Innovation is hard and honestly you got to give Tesla all pretty much the credit in this industry because almost everything good that we have in our electric cars has been pioneered by Tesla including this new technology now of course there's a solid state battery is coming and I honestly don't really understand why Tesla is not jumping on that bandwagon but it doesn't appear that they are um but at the same time you got to give you know Peter Olson some credit because he did turn out to be right at least for the time being that you know these are not exactly a breakthrough just yet that here we come to a different part and kind of the biggest point of this video because you know even though even with this chemistry this is still a better battery overall so uh why didn't by the way this was not that add Genius of an idea to have like just less casing around it therefore the weight is going to be less right like this is you don't have to be genius to come up with that but yet nobody did Tesla did so however at this point while Tesla trying to ramp it up and of course being the first one is the most difficult thing um others have basically kind of copied this all right and many many companies are doing it obviously cattle the catl they're the battery cell manufacturer Neo and I the list is pretty long the honorable mention goes to is this Israeli based uh company that just kind of came out of nowhere called store dot they've actually been producing them for a year now and they're calling them a hundred in five meaning this battery is supposed to provide a hundred miles in five minutes of charging which actually I think is is a pretty good concept um so a lot of these companies started to do this and also started to suggest that this should be part of the actual um a structural um the battery becomes a structural bad battery so I I you know it's a it's it's almost unfortunate because I I would like these companies to maybe invent things themselves there's got to be things that they can do to invent and not just consistently copy Tesla but uh you know when I saw this article right it kind of said well BMW is being tasked at its own game and I was like okay well that is I'd like to know so I read the article and you know so so BMWs is coming up with their Gen 6 uh batteries and it looks like they're not going to be 46 um 80s because you know essentially it's 46 millimeter by 80 millimeter and uh they're going to be 46.95 or 120 so you know uh longer or taller I mean I guess in Germany everything is taller including batteries now it's gonna have less Cobalt and more nickel which is great for environment because obviously of mining uh Cobalt and also here's another thing we which I don't know quite what this means but maybe you guys can explain because I'm definitely not a chemist uh it's unknown is silicon doped graphite rather than ordinary pure graphite I don't know what silicon dope uh graphite is I'm gonna graphite that smokes a lot of circle on weekends but I'm sure there's a better explanation and application to that uh now here's what BMW is doing besides that obviously that's going to benefit them with these batteries but at the end of the day you know it's still not we can't call it the Breakthrough at all but what they're doing different than Tesla they're actually Outsourcing this to cattle catl and I think a few others um something that Tesla actually ended up doing after they realized they were struggling with with the original production and then BMW is planning to build six six factories just to make these cells you know if they're gonna go through with this this definitely is a major news for BMW now these are supposed to provide 30 more range and a cost will go down by about 50 but I mean of course we'll see they have to execute now this is not tomorrow this is not even a next year this is something they're doing by 2025 and you know this article suggested that you know look at BMW they're going to have the longest range EV they've been in you know Tesla they don't care here's the thing you know no we need to see it three years that's a long time in this industry so we'll we'll see if they're going to execute and also it's kind of silly to assume that Tesla uh is just gonna sit on their butts and do nothing uh they're definitely going to uh Propel for the end so are the others like a store Dot and catl themselves and so forth so we'll see if this is going to put BMW on top but this is definitely good news uh for for BMW and nevertheless but this brings me to a bigger point you know look at the look at what just happened right so BMW is going to have essentially the same thing that Tesla did um except for Tesla invented it and they've kind of over promised and under delivered at least at this point and everybody is obviously looking down on that because look Tesla is underachieving but then BMW had pretty much no expectations I mean we stared at the I3 for eight years as the Marvel of electric technology from BMW until this year with the I4 and IX arriving and now they look like a genius look at that we got the 46 whatever 120s now is going to be a structural battery pack and and look we're going to have better range and it's going to cost us less by the way when companies say that it's going to cost them less it's going to cost them less it's not going to cost you less I don't see cars I mean yes with the maybe Chevy Volt is an exception uh you know I don't see prices going down that much for electric cars especially BMW especially moving forward so you know will this continue is this a phenomenal that's kind of unfortunate for Tesla but at the same time I guess as consumers we don't care as well we get the best products we can it's it's you know we'll we'll have to now before I get to your questions by the way I always wanted to mention that a couple of days ago I went down the street here in um uh Alameda California literally down the street from me because uh uh saw no Scion this is like a solar electric solar powered electric car kind of like a Terra only with you know like four wheels here it is a beautiful shot this is an actual shot of it uh with a beautiful view of San Francisco and the bridge um so I got to drive it I got what no I didn't get to drive I get to ride in it even the CEO of the company couldn't actually drive the car believe it or not they're like only like few people licensed to do this uh in their company and he's not one of them but we spent some time chatting and you know I have some clips from my interview with them so it is uh uh it it you can see it at on this Sunday is when I'm gonna release it as I'm driving out of California so uh this is definitely going to be a a Bittersweet but okay so let's uh let's get to some questions and again I will answer the questions about you know about the whole California thing is um a little bit later but uh all right so Casey says interesting looking excited for BMW's feature in the electric uh space when you say interesting looking do you meet BMW or this guy here by the way are you digging the new glasses or what I honestly spent like two weeks shopping for the new glasses and I'm kind of I like what I what I picked and I also put some anti-glare stuff on it so the the light is not really hitting me as hard but I definitely look smarter I I feel like I definitely look smarter than that but um you know BMW I have to say has kind of stepped it up lately with the I4 in in IX right they just kind of came up with a good decent looking again I I hate the grill I just don't understand why I keep going with this what I call monkey butt front grille but you know it is a BMW it's got all of the features a decent range I believe they both 300 plus uh miles the pricing is pretty decent I'm definitely up to par and uh it is uh it I mean they're really making a good case case now I was actually making another video and maybe I'll still do it later uh next week or the week after that um about Mercedes do you know how many actual electric car models Mercedes has on the market like right now there's like seven I think Mercedes Mercedes has a more electric car models right now than any brand maybe Volkswagen group but just only because Volkswagen group has a lot of different brands right but it is uh it is definitely unbelievable so all right well let's get back to the actual topic here um check bound love that username uh structural batteries I guess the risk of having your car written off due to battery damage in a minor Collision is relatively High maybe it's a cheaper to make I think not great for the buyer now I agree with you there so that also goes to the one piece casting that Tesla is doing right and this has been my concern all along and I've addressed it with Sandy but here's the thing you're in a car accident right and you know it maybe it wouldn't be a total loss in another car but if you damage that one piece I know it's stronger than a bunch of other pieces but if you damage that one piece um and you have to replace like half essentially of your body uh the structural body your car will probably gonna be written off uh same thing with with the batteries you're right if if the battery the batteries are going to be much harder to replace uh if the batteries are damaged then it is part of the structure all of a sudden it's structural damage and not just a um just the um component damage and the insurance companies will most likely uh have to you know basically write it off uh but what do you think is going to happen who do you think is going to pay for all of these cars being written off because you know of a relatively minor damage uh having to basically be completely done you and I right um so this is definitely something to think about and once again you know cheaper to make I don't understand why people get excited about cheaper to make unless you are major shareholders or hold any shares on Tesla or BMW or whatever which is you know there's a whole different conversation but I am always been shocked how much regular daily consumers are on the side of the very companies that kind of sometimes screw them over or don't always deliver a good the best product and service because yes cheaper to make for them guess who gets to keep the extra profits that they're going to make on that I mean I just mentioned in the case of model y doesn't seem it's the consumers it's the company as a matter of fact Tesla has just once again released the fact that they are making more profits in terms of percentage uh the profit margin on every car than pretty much any other manufacturer pretty much ever right which means all of these technology advances are really for their investors in Elon Musk himself rather than for you the Tesla driver um Arnie Carlson says faster charging needs higher battery voltage that's true and this is why I'm kind of surprised that uh Tesla did not uh switch to 800 or 900 volt systems like you know lucid and and Porsche and so forth and that is the key but it's not just about the faster charging right it's about the resistance of the battery chemistry and many other things so you know it's a combination of things but yes I I'm a little surprised that Tesla hasn't done hasn't switched to 8 or 900 uh volts charging because that will definitely put them on probably most likely on top once again right now it's Lucid right and then Kia and and Hyundai are are up there also I think I believe 20 to 80 in 16 minutes so um but yeah yeah absolutely agreed um all right I'm looking forward to all of your comments uh when we repost this video as you know we repackage it and repost it the next day um and thank you for those of you who have been hanging out with me live here today every Wednesday at 1pm by the way Tom couldn't make it here because he forgot about this it is literally up in the air in an airplane right now flying to another state I should probably give up his allocation so I'm looking forward to all of your comments other than that see you guys next time and remember to stay charged get us around the world

Channel: E for Electric

Views: 41,136

Keywords: bmw v tesla, bmw vs tesla, bmw battery technology, bmw 4680, tesla 4680, tesla 4680 battery, bmw news, bmw electric cars, bmw ev, tesla news, electric car news, electric car news 2022, electric cars, electric cars 2022, e for electric

Id: ognJQ9Cy9_A

Length: 22min 3sec (1323 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 27 2022