Is Tesla Making a Graphene Battery?

Coal and Related Carbon Resources / Lignite, Graphite, Graphene, & Carbon Uses

Date posted: 04/07/16

Charlotte McLeod reports that Tesla Motors is a household name at this point, especially since the March 31 unveiling of its Model 3 sedan, a $35,000 car that the company believes will help make electric vehicles available to the masses. That is definitely exciting news for car enthusiasts, but it is also good news for critical metals investors. Why? Because Tesla electric vehicles run on lithium-ion batteries, which require lithium, graphite and cobalt. Demand for those metals is expected to increase as Tesla sells more of its electric vehicles. But some investors are still wondering whether the Tesla lithium-ion batteries may eventually include another interesting material. That material is graphene, a crystalline allotrope of carbon that has a reputation for being able to improve an extremely wide variety of products. Read on to find out whether that is a possibility. Widely regarded as the wonder material of the 21st Century, graphene has an impressive list of characteristics ... it is a better electricity conductor than copper, impermeable to gases, 200 times stronger than steel (but six times lighter) and almost completely transparent. Further, its properties can be altered when chemical components are added to its surface. Those qualities give graphene seemingly endless applications (though most still are not commercially available). But could graphene really be used to make better lithium-ion batteries? And if so, is that something Tesla is pursuing? The short answer is probably not, but there is more to the story than that. Here is a brief overview of what you should know about Tesla and graphene: A 500-mile graphene battery? The China Xinhua News Agency is largely responsible for rumors that Tesla may be making a graphene battery. Why? Because back in 2014 the news outlet published an article stating that Tesla was working on a graphene battery that could nearly double the range of the Model S to 500 miles.