Tesla 4680 Current Collector Layout Revealed
Munro Live managed to uncover an entire section.
After days of hard work, the Munro Live team presents another stage of the teardown of the Made-in-Texas (MIT) Tesla Model Y's structural battery pack.
We already saw big progress in removing the pink polyurethane foam with a rented dry ice blaster and now we can see the current collector layout of one section of the battery (there are four sections in total), as well as the voltage sensor harness (VSH), and battery management system (BMS) elements.
The new structural battery vastly differs compared to the other Tesla batteries (in Model S/X and Model 3/Y).
The current collectors (both are on the top) are welded directly to the 4680-type cylindrical battery cells, while in the case of other types, there were very small bonds between the cell and the current collectors. That sounds like simplification with a potential for cost reduction, as well as the elimination of potential failure points.
According to the video, the cells are grouped by 9 units (electrically connected in parallel). The bricks in the 2170-type pack counted several times more cells because they are smaller and have lower capacity. Each brick is connected to the BMS, which gets info about voltage and temperature.
The following part of the video reveals how advanced and complex the three-dimensional structure is, with multiple layers of various elements. Munro Live's experts praise this strategy, but it might take time to research all of the materials and solutions to better understand how it works and what's the key to making better EVs. Knowing Tesla, the company is probably already busy with new revisions/upgrades of the system in this never-ending race.
Meanwhile, the first 4680-type cell has been finally extracted from the battery pack. Munro & Associates intends to collect most of the cells and sell them (at $800 per unit) to offset some of the costs of the teardown. Considering how rare the 4680-powered Model Y is and how difficult it is to get into the cells, it actually might be a worthy item for OEMs, and research centers, as well as collectors and supporters.
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