Tesla: A Carmaker Or Grid-Storage Company?

cartechboy (2660665) writes "Let's be real, the three Detroit automakers were skeptical of Tesla Motors, and rightfully so. But at this point, it's pretty hard to deny the impact this Silicon Valley automaker is having on the industry. Now there's a new question buzzing around: Is Tesla Motors actually a carmaker, or is it really just a grid-storage company? If you think about it, the company's stock price is too high for Toyota or Daimler to just buy it outright. So maybe Tesla's gigafactory will not only make batteries for its own electric cars, but it could also sell battery packs to electric utilities and others. In reality, the gigafactory could become its own separate company and just sell the battery packs to Tesla, and others."

Comments

Probably not

[Animats]

Batteries for grid storage have different properties than batteries for cars.

• Weight doesn't matter for grid storage.
• Recharge time need not be faster than discharge rate.
• Grid storage batteries should last a decade or two. Car storage batteries only need a working life of a few thousand hours.
• Efficiency over a charge/discharge cycle matters more for grid storage.

So grid storage tends to use different battery technologies than vehicles.