This exists already. 18650 is in widespread use and now 2170 is gaining traction. Each cell is already a standard voltage, 4.2V at the top end, 2.75V on the bottom end (or lower depending on whether you want to risk permanent damage).
> Can we please get batteries with built-in protection circuits? I want to wire them in series or parallel at any voltage and have them "just work" and never explode. Bonus: please do this with solar panels as well.
These also already exist. Tesla will never use them because the BMS handles that job, which is more effective and cheaper.
And connectors. There are multiple worldwide standards because companies keep pushing their own for attempt at proprietary advantage. J1772 is the worldwide standard for ac that everyone supports. It has a flaw of not going to high enough power. Tesla is the only company that supports upto 80 amps 220v. Most companies support much lower voltages, some barely 30 amps and 220 v. Current gen tesla support 220v and 45 amps (can't remember the exact number). There are multiple worldwide standards for high power dc. Chademo (Japanese standard, doesn't go to high enough power, only like 50kw), leafs support these in the us. ccs in europe is a successful cross company standard that everyone uses, including tesla model 3 and later. So good job there. The us stupidly has a different ccs plug. Not many cars support it.
Teslas own proprietary plug is better than all the standards, supports higher power. Only just now are there cars on the new euro high power ccs plugs that match and exceed tesla's powerful plug. My 2012 tesla model s car is basically better than all existing competitors in range, ability to charge, etc. The brand new cars from porsche (but you can't go out and buy one, coming soon maybe, the taycan has a higher theoretical charging speed, they need to build a charging network.
Tesla offered to share their plug tech to other companies if they agreed not to sue each other, but no companies took them up on it.
No, it's not. It's mostly just used in North America and Japan. The IEC 62196 "Type 2" connector is the standard in Europe and most of the rest of the world. And outside of North America and Japan, Tesla use the standard Type 2 connector on their vehicles, not the proprietary Tesla connector.
North America certainly has a big problem with the lack of connector standardisation, but J1772 is a big part of that problem, not the solution.
2) Model S can charge at up to 200kW. Porsche Taycan can charge up to 270kW and they have said a software update will push this to 400kW-500kW. We still aren't sure what Porsche's superior 800V architecture is capable of.
3) Porsche doesn't need to build a charging network. They can use the existing CCS ones provided by third parties many of which are starting to rollout 350kW charging.
Each protection circuit comes with a power cost. Consider the most basic protection: a resettable fuse (real protection circuitry is more complex).
If you put a resettable fuse on every battery in a pack that tiny voltage drop across a single battery will occur across each and every battery in your pack.
A small number of batteries and you wouldn't notice. But if you're looking at hundreds or thousands of cells it gets to be a major issue. Looking at string of batteries in series, if you draw a large current from the pack you'd find your pack voltage drops and you generate a lot of useless heat.
When building custom packs beyond hobbyist stuff it's often better to source (or design) your own battery management system than to rely on safety circuitry in each cell.
And that's not even mentioning the pack management and communications capabilities that custom pack- or string- based management circuitry would have.
[1] https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Tesla-and-Panason... [2] https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Cover-Story/Sparks-fly-Ins... [3] hard to find a singular link that back this up, note the constant drumbeat of agreements/movement over the last year and contrast with 1 & 2: c.f. https://www.google.com/search?q=panasonic+toyota&rlz=1CAUWRX... [4] https://sciencebusiness.net/network-updates/commission-clear...
https://electrek.co/2019/06/26/tesla-cells-in-house-secret-b...
Recommend reading up on it, it's fascinating and quite widely covered online.
It's a win on many fronts for Tesla if they can make it work.
They're not?
While batteries store energy in a chemical reaction and capacitors store it in an electric field; physically their construction is very similar.
Super capacitors, like batteries, have plates and use an electrolyte. They are also packaged similarly.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=industrial+capacitor&t=fpas&iax=im...
I would imagine there is quite a bit of overlap in manufacturing and chemistry.
I'd much rather have batteries fail in a predicable way than trust failure from abusive usage can be prevented (and then fail unpredictably).
* There's a slight monopoly danger of having so many batteries manufactured from one source, although Tesla would be better than say, an oil company.
* Can we please get standard battery form factors, voltages and connectors: like AA, AAA, C, D, 9 volt, etc, but in a larger size similar to lantern batteries and car batteries?
* Can we please get batteries with built-in protection circuits? I want to wire them in series or parallel at any voltage and have them "just work" and never explode. Bonus: please do this with solar panels as well.
* Can we please get batteries with prepaid postage or a recycling refund (similar to aluminum cans) that can be taken to any post office, propane exchange or even gas station for recycling?