Tesla recently announced a patent for "Tabless energy storage equipment and its manufacturing methods", which involves energy storage equipment and its manufacturing methods, and it also describes the manufacturing method of 4680 batteries.
Currently, there are many types of battery cells used as a power source in electric vehicles and energy storage equipment, most of them use the "jelly roll" design, their cathodes, anodes and separators will be rolled together, and they need cathode lugs and anode lugs to connect to the positive and negative terminals of the battery tank, the path of current must reach the connector outside the battery cell through these connectors, however, when the current must flow along the cathode or anode to the polar ear and flow out of the battery, and the resistance will increase with the increase of distance, In addition, since the convex groove part is equivalent to an additional component, this also adds extra thickness and height to the device, and they themselves must be rolled into the "jelly roll", which also increases the cost and imposes certain restrictions on the manufacture of the battery...
During Battery Day 2020, Tesla introduced a new 4680 battery, which was manufactured in a completely new way, and the following year, September 17, 2021, Tesla filed the patent and published a patent on March 24, 2022, "Tabless Energy Storage Devices and Their Manufacturing Methods", describing how it was manufactured:
According to the patent, they added a method of manufacturing a battery, the battery cell comprises an anode or cathode, the anode or cathode having a series of signs formed by the foil portion of the upper and lower ends of each electrode, the most significant of which is that the signs are folded at each end to form a staggered flower shape, in addition, the patent also talks about providing an electrode layer, the electrode layer has an active material arranged on the foil, forming a series of labeled electrodes in the foil; winding the marked electrodes to form an electrode coil And connect the rolled electrode coil to the collector to form an energy storage device (please forgive me for the incorrect understanding of battery terminology or related technologies in the article)...
In short, judging from the patents that are constantly announced, Tesla's goal is to make batteries as cheap as possible, which is the most expensive component of all electric vehicles, and the emergence of cheap batteries will make more people affordable electric vehicles, which also means that the world will enter the era of electric vehicles faster.