Samsung will challenge Tesla with its own electric car batteries
With its claims of unprecedented power storage, Samsung plans to challenge the electric car batteries now being pumped out of the Tesla Gigafactory.
Samsung has chosen a wise time to start building long-range car batteries: China plans to ban gas-powered cars and automobile giant Volkswagen will offer electric versions of all their vehicles by 2030.
These millions of forthcoming vehicles will need powerful batteries, and earlier this week Samsung introduced its “multifunctional battery packs” at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show, which it claims can power electric cars for up to 430 miles. That would theoretically get you from Los Angeles to San Francisco with about 50 miles to spare.
For reference, Tesla says that the recently released Model 3, its affordable class vehicle, has batteries that can power the car for 220 miles.
The 200-mile difference between Tesla and Samsung sounds notable, but Tesla batteries have been powering its electric vehicles for years, while Samsung’s innovative offering has yet to hit the road. Without road-testing, its unknown what type and size of electric vehicle will actually be able to travel some 430 miles when powered by Samsung’s battery packs.
Although Samsung’s battery division, Samsung SDI, didn’t reveal too many details about its multifunctional battery pack, it has some similarities with the small, cylindrical batteries Tesla is putting into its Model 3, called the 2170 battery cell. Currently being produced in Tesla’s sprawling desert Gigafactory, these 2170 batteries can be held in the palm your hand, and Elon Musk calls them the highest density battery cells in the world.
