How much would you pay for an aluminum ion battery retrofit?

[TyPope]

While I don't see Tesla abandoning current battery tech any time soon, they may iterate current processes and end up with higher ranges given current form factor.

In fact, I would almost bet that rather than use the same physical size of batteries and popping out 40% more range, it seems Tesla is proving that their ~300-mile range is plenty and would be MUCH more likely to simply make smaller batteries that have the same available voltage/range as current vehicles. This would drop the cost of their cars, and the lighter weight would increase range a little to boot.

The Model Y, for instance, has a 1,000 - 1,200 pound battery. If each cell were 40% more energetic, you could use 40% fewer cells resulting in not quite 400 - 480 pounds but maybe somewhat close to that. Weight is a range subtractor.

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[Mikec3399]

I currently own 3, 2024 FS Cyberbeasts , best dam trucks on the planet

I have free Lifetime Supercharging and connectivity, I don't have range anxiety,
however, when I Tow my trailer, I could use a few extra miles,

my issue is, in the southeast, most of the highways have a posted speed limit of 70mph, it's tough to back down to 60 while towing to help with range, that is at best 80-90 miles with a Tri Motor Cyberbeast.
As soon as I plug in my trailer, the beast goes in tow mode, which is considerably more powerful than chill mode.
Definitely need that extra range with a separate charging port so both batteries can be charged at the same time while traveling at a Supercharger.
I do carry a 30 ft charging extension cord for a tesla, it's not an issue when a pull thru is not available, and I break out the cord to reach my beast. drop and hook sucks, each and every hour.

Some critics say do not use it, however for the past 9 month as I travel up and down the East coast from New England to Georgia, I have not incurred and over heating or loss of speed MPH or KW, while charging, minimal a best.

As for pricing of a new extra battery pack, $4000-$5000 is affordable however it has to add more that 100 miles of range, while towing a 8-10K lb trailer otherwise, I would not be interested.

Remember while towing, A Cyberbeast is a different animal VS an AWD and the battery gets sucked up way faster.

I hope this helps

 

[hemiarch]

Whoa…3…that’s pretty cool. What do you do with 3 of them? At different homes or what?

 

[Mikec3399]

Whoa…3…that’s pretty cool. What do you do with 3 of them? At different homes or what?

You nailed it!
One powers my home in Connecticut, I do have solar, so its day charging.
one powers my home in Georgia, free lifetime supercharging,

and another one with free lifetime supercharging I tow,
it's my work horse, I am relocating to My Lake house in Georgia on Lake Laniner,
my beast tows my Sea Ray, Harleys, Toolboxes and all of my other stuff
I have a beauty school in CT with 18 locations, I'm trying to
move my HQ to my basement office in GA
lots of files going back and forth.
www.belleacademy.com

hopefully in Feb or March ill be completed moved in and Remote access to all of my locations.

think about it, Solar needs a Powerwall to be effective, and at $16,000 per Powerwall it's just not cost effective.
My home in GA is 3 levels, 6043 sq ft of finished space, # HVAC Systems, and a 100% electric home. i run my power share only at night, so once a week my wife goes to the supercharger, powers up and I'm good, my electric bill is less than $80. the savings is amazing

my home in Waterbury CT has solar, I have no electric bill, even in winter when the snow covers the panels, and i can only make power from 10-2pm, again, this homes electric bill used to be $1800 a month, i currently have a lease payment on the solar of $165 per month.
the Savings is insane!
and at 0% financing, with all the free stuff Tesla gave me in June, i could not afford to keep buying more trucks.
recap, No more electric bills, no more Gas and Diesel bills, no more fuel oil bills, no more maintaince on my fleet,
these beasts pay for themselves, and dont get me started on the Moteor vechicle Taxes i was paying on my Fleet in CT, all trucks are now registered in GA, no motorvechile tax, Insurance is so cheap, Beast #1, $410 every 6 months, #2, $208 every 6 months, #3 $151 every 6 months. however i do have a registration tax of $21 per vehicle on my birthday, and a $169.50 EV Tax per truck Annually. my advice to anyone reading this post, Move to Utopia! Georgia is amazing! Lake life is insane!

 

[hemiarch]

You nailed it!
One powers my home in Connecticut, I do have solar, so its day charging.
one powers my home in Georgia, free lifetime supercharging,

and another one with free lifetime supercharging I tow,
it's my work horse, I am relocating to My Lake house in Georgia on Lake Laniner,
my beast tows my Sea Ray, Harleys, Toolboxes and all of my other stuff
I have a beauty school in CT with 18 locations, I'm trying to
move my HQ to my basement office in GA
lots of files going back and forth.
www.belleacademy.com

hopefully in Feb or March ill be completed moved in and Remote access to all of my locations.

think about it, Solar needs a Powerwall to be effective, and at $16,000 per Powerwall it's just not cost effective.
My home in GA is 3 levels, 6043 sq ft of finished space, # HVAC Systems, and a 100% electric home. i run my power share only at night, so once a week my wife goes to the supercharger, powers up and I'm good, my electric bill is less than $80. the savings is amazing

my home in Waterbury CT has solar, I have no electric bill, even in winter when the snow covers the panels, and i can only make power from 10-2pm, again, this homes electric bill used to be $1800 a month, i currently have a lease payment on the solar of $165 per month.
the Savings is insane!
and at 0% financing, with all the free stuff Tesla gave me in June, i could not afford to keep buying more trucks.
recap, No more electric bills, no more Gas and Diesel bills, no more fuel oil bills, no more maintaince on my fleet,
these beasts pay for themselves, and dont get me started on the Moteor vechicle Taxes i was paying on my Fleet in CT, all trucks are now registered in GA, no motorvechile tax, Insurance is so cheap, Beast #1, $410 every 6 months, #2, $208 every 6 months, #3 $151 every 6 months. however i do have a registration tax of $21 per vehicle on my birthday, and a $169.50 EV Tax per truck Annually. my advice to anyone reading this post, Move to Utopia! Georgia is amazing! Lake life is insane!

Makes perfect sense to me. And now that we’ve done it , it makes sense to my wife also.
I went the AWD with free supercharging approach but same concept.

 

[NoleusMaximus]

I would be willing to pay 6K or less for an entirely new battery pack (years in the future) because I expect the 8 year warranty to remain as high value as it currently is. Battery prices have been plummeting for more than 10 years, so if the trend continues we should start seeing price parity with ICE engine/transmission swaps soon.

When that happens, it's definitely game over. But it doesn't end there, since battery packs should turn out to be substantially less than ICE engine replacements in 10 years or less.

Great answers. 30k-6k for upgrades and 0k to do nothing. I want to start lobbying now.

BTW, I do believe the "fan fiction" that comes directly from Tesla about the 2026 Model 2 and it's new battery tech.

 

[SCTesla]

Great answers. 30k-6k for upgrades and 0k to do nothing. I want to start lobbying now.

BTW, I do believe the "fan fiction" that comes directly from Tesla about the 2026 Model 2 and it's new battery tech.

The model 2 is shelved. There is no Model 2.

 

[REM]

Great answers. 30k-6k for upgrades and 0k to do nothing. I want to start lobbying now.

BTW, I do believe the "fan fiction" that comes directly from Tesla about the 2026 Model 2 and it's new battery tech.

I'm really excited for the 'Model 2'; though I don't think Tesla has fully committed to announcing its existence yet.

I hope it has a stainless steel body haha! In reality though, if it comes out it will be a Cybercab with a steering wheel. So that means composite body.

 

[henchman24]

What is this ChatGPT nonsense? Aluminum-ion is being worked on, but is years and years (if not decades) away from mass production. When they do hit production, they'll go into new cars and have a different from factor due to the differences in how the chemistries work. Plus Tesla won't be packing 125+ kWh into standard cars, they'll downsize the packs to keep around 300-350mi of range.

Plus we already know that Tesla is working on 3 new 4680 cells with lithium chemistries that'll start rolling out in the next ~18 months. From a LFP 4680 (Model 2/cheap Y whatever you want to call it and Cybercab) to a moderately improved 973 NMC (could be in production now or will be soon for CT) to a silicon carbon anode version that promises significantly improved density (this is likely the CT refresh cell). Then we have the planned 2170 for the Roadster that is also lithium based (with silicon carbon anode). We are a long, long ways from lithium chemistries being phased out.

 

[bg002h]

Looks like Tesla is angling for a business model of selling new battery systems for existing electric vehicles. This shows some loyalty to existing customers who bought lithium battery-powered cars and trucks and now are seeing a superior battery system in the new 2026 models. The battery management system can take either style with a software upgrade alone. The "skateboard tray" battery assembly looks like it could be replaced fairly quickly. The new batteries are going to be produced on a massive scale so there shouldn't be an excessive wait time. And by excessive wait time, well we've already seen that.

Guessing there will be a 40% capacity increase in capacity if the benchmark rule-of-thumb estimates of the new technology holds. Simply put if the 122kw-hr system became a 170.8 kW-hr system there would be a corresponding range increase from 320 miles to 448 miles. Would that be worth $10k to you? It would be to me. The only way that price would be close is if they gave a trade-in credit for the existing lithium assembly. Thing is that even at $25k a storage cell could be justified for peak load sharing, off-grid living, job site power, and remote power in general.

Post what you'd be willing to pay for the upgrade and lets see if we can get it to happen.

Maybe we can get the range extender after all? I’d buy that at 25% higher price for sure.

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