An important Tesla battery patent may help 4680 battery mass production

A few days ago, Tesla acquired an important battery patent for only $3, which seems to be part of the acquisition of a Canadian start-up. During the Tesla Battery Day last year, the automaker announced several new improvements in battery technology to provide cheaper and cleaner battery cells with higher energy density and lifespan. One of the problems Tesla wants to solve is the amount of water used in the manufacture of battery cathodes and the costs associated with this process. Drew Baglino, Tesla's director of engineering, described the problem. 'Actually, if you start from the left and you have metal from the mine, the first thing that happens is that the metal from the mine is changed into an intermediate called metal sulfate, because this happens to be what the chemist wanted long ago Thing. Then when you make a cathode, you have to add this intermediate called metal sulfate, add chemicals, add a lot of water, a lot of reactions occur in the middle, and finally you get that little cathode and a lot of Wastewater and by-products.' Here is the slide he mentioned when talking about 'on the left.' DrewBaglino said that Tesla has a way to circulate the water. 'As you can see, there is a lot less happening here. We get rid of the intermediate links, metal, water, the final product cathode, and no wastewater at all. When you summarize all of this, the capital expenditure investment is reduced by 66%, and the process cost 76% reduction and zero waste water. It is also a scalable solution.' Now, according to foreign media reports, some sources say that Tesla may have actually obtained this technology from a Canadian start-up company. MarkHarris found a document showing that Tesla obtained a patent very similar to Tesla's above-mentioned technology from a company called Springpower International in Ontario, Canada. The document shows that Tesla acquired the patent for only $3, but a more reasonable explanation is that Tesla acquired the Canadian company-because Springpower closed its website, it seems that there is no longer any facing The presence of the public. Neither Tesla nor Springpower commented on this possible transaction, but foreign media Electrek discovered that two former Springpower employees now list Tesla's positions on their LinkedIn. Amrit Bhogan used to be a chemical technician at Springpower, and now his position at Tesla is a cell engineering technician. Yang Liu was a chemistry researcher at Springpower. Like Bhogan, he went to Tesla in September 2020. This also happened to be the time when Tesla held the battery day conference. He is now a senior researcher for the automaker. engineer. Although it has not been fully confirmed, it seems likely that Tesla acquired the company. This is not the first time Tesla has acquired a Canadian company. Tesla previously acquired Hibar, a manufacturer of battery production machines, and the company also invested in Jeff Dahn's battery laboratory in Canada. At the moment, Springpower has obviously carried out trial production of cathode technology, which may help Tesla to put 4680 batteries into mass production.