Tesla got a headstart on the EV race and now, other manufacturers are pulling out all of the stops to catch up. For its part, Tesla isn’t slowing down either, and bringing its larger 4680 battery cells to mass production could launch the brand even further ahead. Experts cited in a new report suggest that should that happen, it could save the brand more than $5,500 on every single Model Y that it sells. That’s more than eight percent of the crossover’s U.S. starting price.
Elon Musk and Tesla introduced the 4680 battery cell two years ago and since then the brand has been working hard to scale up production. The cell is superior in many ways compared to the 2170 battery Tesla also currently utilizes. For one thing, it’s much larger, and in this context, size does matter.
By increasing the physical size of the battery, Tesla can use far fewer in each battery…