The production cars are still hundreds of small batteries in parallel. I wonder if with Model 3 they have the scale to move away from the standard form factors.

Yup, the current battery uses thousands of 18650s, but they developed a more 'economically efficient' 2170 cell for the model 3 - https://qz.com/879121/teslas-tsla-cheaper-more-powerful-2170...

>> the market did not yet recognize how cheap lithium ion batteries had become.

How did that happened in the age of the internet ? and are there still a lot of such technological "secrets" ?

"Secret" is not the right concept. It's not that people didn't know the price, it's that they didn't see the implications of the price for opening a new market. That kind of insight takes imagination as well as knowledge.

Happens all the time. Kind of how smartphones drove down the prices of components useful for VR goggles, and made them a feasible product.

Manufacturers in this industry don't exactly publish price lists.