Nearly every carmaker in the world is turning out electric cars, but what separates the best from the also-rans is the battery tech.
Tesla, which jumped out to an early lead, has fallen back to the pack but a new battery breakthrough could catapult it back to the pointy end of the field.
On a recent earnings call the company revealed it had perfected a dry coating method for its batteries.
This sounds boring, but the benefits are enormous.
Dry coating refers to the process of making the anode and cathode - two vital components of a battery - that a charge can travel through.
This dry coating process is far less energy intensive and cheaper, and dry coating also doesn’t require the toxic materials needed for the current wet coating process.
Tesla’s Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy, said batteries using this process will find its way into the Cybertruck from the end of this year.
“We built our first validation Cybertruck with dry cathode process made on our mass production equipment, which is a huge technical milestone and we’re super proud of that,” said Moravy.
_0.jpg)
“We’re on track for production launch of dry cathode in Q4 (2024) and this will enable cell cost to be significantly below available alternatives, which was the initial goal of the 4680 program.”
If the company adds this new battery production method to the cells found in the bigger selling Model 3 and Y it could mean cheaper prices for Australian models.
This news comes on the back of South Korean battery giant LG announcing it had perfected a dry coating method for its batteries with mass production expected to start in 2028.
Unlike Tesla, though, the LG method is used to make the anode and cathode, rather than just the cathode as Tesla announced in its earnings call.
Carmakers are on the cusp of a number of battery technologies that’ll revolutionise the industry, including solid state batteries.

Solid state batteries are smaller, lighter, more energy dense, faster charging and less prone to fire than conventional lithium-ion batteries. They are often touted as the silver bullet to electric car adoption and provide driving ranges of more than 1000km.
They use a solid electrolyte rather than a liquid or gel materials found in current batteries.
Toyota has said it will fit the batteries in its cars by 2027 and Nissan claims it’ll have the future tech in its production cars by 2028.
It is believed these batteries are needed to make electric utes and four-wheel drives feasible.