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Tesla Could Be Hogging Batteries and Causing a Global Shortage, Says Report (gizmodo.com)
According to a report from the Korea news outlet ETNews, Tesla's solution to fixing a manufacturing bottleneck responsible for a $619 million loss last quarter could be causing a global battery shortage. Panasonic reportedly gave most of its cache of batteries in Japan to Tesla so that the automaker and Gigafactory 1 energy-storage company could keep up with its ambitious production schedule. Gizmodo reports: In early October, Tesla struggled with a "production bottleneck," but by the end of the month, Panasonic stated it would increase battery output at the Gigafactory, now that it understood the issues that led to the bottleneck and could automate some of the processes that had been done by hand. But this likely did not help Tesla fix any immediate shortage issues. ETNews claims that Panasonic is coping with the shortage by shipping batteries in from Japan. And many Japanese companies in need of cylinder batteries have turned to other suppliers like LG, Murata, and Samsung -- but those companies have not been able to meet the demands. Reportedly, companies that had contracts before 2017 aren't affected by the shortage, but several other manufacturers have not been able to place orders for batteries, and won't be able to order more batteries until the middle of next year.
Goddamn Panasonic and Tesla can ship these giant tinderboxes willy nilly all over the globe, and I can't even get a 1800ma/hr cell phone battery shipped here on a damn boat! Assholes!
What's the environmental impact of this battery manufacturing? If they're being shipped from Japan to the US, then they'll have a higher carbon footprint due to being shipped across an ocean than batteries manufactured locally, no? Are vehicles that use batteries like this truly more environmentally friendly if they have all kinds of hidden carbon inputs associated with their manufacture and transport?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programme...
"Tempers are wearing thin. Let's just hope some robot doesn't kill everybody." --Bender
Fuck everyone else. It's just good business.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
It will be interesting to see how the usual group of Musk trolls reconciles their desire to paint Tesla as a flop while grappling with data like this. They are selling product fast enough that they are causing battery supply disruptions.
Let's see: company (Tesla) has more need for materials furnished by a partner company(Panasonic), so orders more and partner company supplies the extra materials. Other companies WITHOUT existing supply contracts whine about being unable to buy batteries from partner company. Isn't this at some level how basic capitalism works? It's not like there aren't other battery suppliers and - yes! - demand is skyrocketing. Welcome to the real world.
If they used NiCd a Model S would weigh 8 tonnes.
Wait, so the claim is that Tesla could be CAUSING a shortage?
How are they causing a shortage? By buying up all the batteries they can get.
Why are they buying up batteries? To eliminate their manufacturing problems.
What were the manufacturing problems they were having? They couldn't get enough batteries.
Oh yeah, that makes total sense. It's not a battery shortage causing Tesla to buy up batteries....it's Tesla buying up batteries that is causing a shortage.
Start manufacturing batteries.
If they used NiCd a Model S would weigh 8 tonnes.
On the plus side, it could qualify as a moving Superfund site.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Journalists use language like that when they don't have any facts to back it up.
The facts are Tesla no longer use the same sized batteries as other products, like laptops do, in their new models.
I don't see how draining stockpiles of 18650 cells would help them manufacture their cars that require 2170 cells.
A more likely story is that Panasonic has halted production of 18650 cells to manufacture 2170 cells instead, while keeping enough capacity to honor existing customer contracts.
Look, I have news for you, there are about 20 decent battery technologies that are cutting edge right now. We had a battery technology research conference here this past summer at the UW. There are many flavors of battery types, and I'll be honest with you, they all work fairly well.
A shortage of a specific type of battery materials in a specific country does NOT mean that you have shortages worldwide, nor does it mean that you can't use any of the other very good battery tech instead.
Stop panicking. We need the batteries for our new fusion reactor balancing systems. That's why you're seeing shortages. It will be over soon, once the new fusion submarines and naval retrofits are complete. And, no, you won't see those commercially for another 25 years.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
There is evidence that Apple is hogging the world's supply of overpriced bullshit.
Seriously, when Apple ties up these exclusive contracts for its 4k displays, it's considered great business. If Elon is really hogging the world's supply of batteries, then one would expect to see the price of batteries to go up instead of down.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Yeah, buying batteries available on the open market, gassing 6 million Jews and starting a war that killed over 50 million other people... basically the same thing.
FYI you are a moron.
What's the problem? Your parent said "worse" not "more awesome".
Wait, what? I thought electric vehicles didn't have a transmission.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
So, I'm reading all these Slashdot comments, and just am amazed at one thing that wasn't even close to true even ten years ago.
Not only do Republicans appear to hate the environment, they clearly hate basic capitalism too.
I would make a Russian communist joke starting with "Da comrade..." but given what's in the news, am worried it might be confused with a real critique.
>but several other manufacturers have not been able to place orders for batteries, and won't be able to order more batteries until the middle of next year.
Chinese factory owners must be happy
What 6 million? The six million is a sham number.
Auschwitz concentration camp Poland, years 1948-1989 the official camp plague said- "four million people suffered and died here at the hands of the nazi murderers between the years 1940 and 1945"
After the 1989 and Polish independence from CCCP, the official camp plague was changed - "for ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity, where the nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, and children mainly jews from various countries of europe"
The first one did not talk about jews in any form and the second one talks about men, women and children and mentions that "mainly" but not all. What is "mainly"?
80% or 70% or 55% of 1,5 million? They do not talk about that for some reason.
Dec 3, 2017
Yesterday was the monthly moment of truth for automakers in the US. They reported the number of new vehicles that their dealers delivered to their customers and that the automakers delivered directly to large fleet customers. These are unit sales, not dollar sales, and they’re religiously followed by the industry.
Total sales in November rose 0.9% from a year ago to 1,393,010 new vehicles, according to Autodata, which tracks these sales as they’re reported by the automakers. Sales of cars dropped 8.2%. Sales of trucks – which include SUVs, crossovers, pickups, and vans – rose 6.6%. Strong replacement demand from the hurricane-affected areas in Texas papered over weaknesses elsewhere. As always, there were winners and losers.
And one of the losers was Tesla.
First things first: There is nothing wrong with a tiny automaker trying to design, make, and sell cool but expensive cars that a few thousand Americans might buy every month, and trying to do so on a battleground dominated by giants. Porsche has been doing that for years. Porsche AG is owned by Volkswagen AG, which is itself majority-owned by Porsche Automobil Holding SE. Tesla is out there by itself.
And Tesla has put electric vehicles on the map. That was a huge feat. EVs have been around since the 1800s, but given the challenges that batteries posed, they simply didn’t catch on until Tesla made EVs cool. Yet Tesla has to buy the battery cells from battery makers, such as Panasonic.
Tesla isn’t quite out there by itself, though. The Wall Street hype machine backs it up, dousing it with billions of dollars on a regular basis to burn through as fast as it can. This masterful hype has created a giant market capitalization of about $52 billion, more than most automakers, including Ford ($50 billion). It’s not far behind GM ($61 billion).
But Tesla – which lost $619 million in Q3 – delivered only 3,590 vehicles in November in the US, down 18% from a year ago.
There are all kinds of interesting aspects about this.
One: 3,590 vehicles amounts to a market share of only 0.26%, of the 1,393,010 new cars and trucks sold in the US in November. Porsche outsold Tesla by 55% (5,555 new vehicles).
Two: Tesla doesn’t report monthly deliveries. It wants to play with the big boys, but it doesn’t want people to know on a monthly basis just how crummy and by comparison inconsequential its US sales numbers are. Opaque and dedicated to hype, it refuses to disclose how many vehicles it delivered that month in the US. So the industry is estimating Tesla’s monthly US sales.
Tesla discloses unit sales data in its quarterly earnings reports, long after everyone has already forgotten about the months in which they occurred.
Three: So how are Model 3 sales doing? Since Tesla doesn’t disclose its monthly deliveries in the US, the industry is guessing. The assembly line still isn’t working. “Manufacturing bottlenecks,” as Tesla calls it, and “manufacturing hell,” as Elon Musk calls it, rule the day.
In Q3, Tesla delivered 220 handmade Model 3’s. In October, it delivered about 145 handmade units. In November, the assembly line still wasn’t assembling cars. Inside EVs estimates that Tesla delivered a whopping 345 units in November.
Four: This is where hype goes to die. In February 2017, Tesla hyped these Model 3 production numbers for 2017:
Our Model 3 program is on track to start limited vehicle production in July and to steadily ramp production to exceed 5,000 vehicles per week at some point in the fourth quarter and 10,000 vehicles per week at some point in 2018.
November is solidly in the fourth quarter. 5,000 vehicles per week would mean over 20,000 a month. OK, this is November and not December, so maybe 4,000 a week for a total of 16,000. We got 345.
Even if the estimate of 345 is off by 100 units up or down, it doesn’t even matter. And December isn’t l
Auschwitz concentration camp Poland, years 1948-1989 the official camp plague said- "four million people suffered and died here at the hands of the nazi murderers between the years 1940 and 1945"
Unfortunately a lot of people have only heard about Auschwitz. It wasn't the only concentration camp.
So, I'm reading all these Slashdot comments, and just am amazed at one thing that wasn't even close to true even ten years ago.
Not only do Republicans appear to hate the environment, they clearly hate basic capitalism too.
Republicans have always, repeat always been against free market capitalism. They say they want small government, and for it to stay out of businesses' affairs, and then they pass assloads of laws designed specifically to give the advantage to one business or another. When they say they are against the Democrats interfering in the way businesses are operated, they mean that it's affecting their ability to do the same, not that they are opposed to it.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
They are Electric, they have an Emission.
Treblinka? Belzec? Chelmo? Dachau? Buchenwald? Janowska? Majdanek? Bergen-Belsen?
I'm going to point out two things. First, Auschwitz was only one (although the most murderous) of the Nazi death camps, and Nazi murder was not limited to just the death camps. Second, people process wood and cloth into flat and flexible sheets, put them into packages that allow perusal of both sides of all sheets, and make small dark marks on the sheets (typically before the creation of the package), and these packages can be used to learn things from. Some of these will show all the details you want about Nazi murders.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Lots of people don't seem to notice the difference between an economic and regulatory environment that is friendly to business in general and one that is friendly to certain specific businesses.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes