Chapter 1643 Must Go

at the same time.

Palo Alto, California.

Tesla's advanced battery research and development center.

Professor Jeff Dane swallowed hard and met the pair of burning, anxious eyes across the conference table.

The owner of the eyes is his investor and employer, the soul of Tesla, Elon Musk

More than a year ago, driven by Tesla's grand blueprint of "accelerating the world's transition to sustainable energy" and its extremely tempting R&D commitments, Professor Dahn accepted Musk's invitation, left the academic ivory tower, and became Tesla's chief scientist.

His first task was to collaborate with LG Chem to jointly conquer the pinnacle of the new generation of power batteries - lithium manganese iron phosphate hybrid ternary lithium battery based on Co-C-hBN positive electrode material.

This technology is highly anticipated and is seen as the key for Tesla to maintain its technological leadership, break through the bottleneck of driving range, and further reduce costs.

The initial plan was clear and robust: in the early stages, it relied on Co-C-hBN materials imported from China for small-batch vehicle installation verification and technology accumulation. At the same time, the team led by Daen worked hard to tackle the material synthesis process and ultimately achieve complete independence of the supply chain.

However, plans can never keep up with changes, and fate twists things around at critical moments.

The good news is that shortly after the project started, a young female researcher from China joined Dahn’s core team.

She came from the Huaxia Lianhai Chemical Research Institute with "internal research data" that was considered priceless.

These data injected a powerful shot of propellant into the R&D engine, causing the originally faltering independent synthesis route to suddenly accelerate.

The bad news is self-explanatory—

Just when their research and development entered the critical sprint stage and seemed to be only one step away from completing the entire process, China brought out that precise and cruel export control order.

What makes Dahn even more worried is that in order to deal with the stock price crash that occurred at the opening, Tesla and LG Chem hastily issued a joint statement promising "stable supply" without any communication.

This statement was like a tight ring, firmly put on the research team's head, and also put him in front of Musk, the boss who is famous for his "results orientation" and "aggressive timetable".

"Jeff," Musk said in a serious, hoarse voice, "the statement has been sent. The capital markets have given us a temporary respite, but it's just a respite."

"Now, the entire Wall Street, all the investors, and tens of thousands of pre-order owners are watching us deliver on our promise... Tell me, how much longer will it take for our batteries to actually become a product on the assembly line?"

Although Dan had already guessed the purpose of the other party's visit, his head still buzzed when he actually heard this question.

It took a while to recover:

"I understand the urgency of the situation. However, technological development has its own rules. Even if everything goes smoothly and there are no unexpected problems, completing the full set of battery pack safety verification, cycle life testing, extreme environment simulation... and going through all the necessary processes to ensure that there are no problems will take at least... eight to ten months."

This answer made Musk's facial muscles twitch violently and his eyebrows raised, obviously dissatisfied.

"Haven't we already obtained firsthand information from the Lianhai Institute of Chemical Physics, the ones Lin brought?" His question was slightly aggressive. "Also, I remember that in the report you gave me last November, you wrote that electrochemical testing had already begun. Were you just making that up to please me?"

Dan felt cold sweat on his forehead and quickly explained:

"The report is absolutely true! Elon! Cell-level testing has indeed begun, and some key data, such as single-cell energy density, initial charge and discharge efficiency, and even fast charging capability, are truly impressive, approaching or even exceeding design expectations in some areas!"

He spoke very quickly, trying to clarify the misunderstanding:

"But the excellent performance of a single cell doesn't guarantee flawless operation of a battery pack comprised of dozens or even hundreds of cells. System integration involves thermal management and consistency control... Problems in any of these links can lead to disaster. Our current bottleneck lies precisely in the consistency of the cells!"

"Consistency?" Musk frowned. "But regardless, a delay of nearly a year is completely unacceptable. It will likely cause problems for LG Chem and our funding chain."

He clearly has a basic understanding of this crucial term in the battery field, but he hasn't fully grasped its seriousness at this time:

"Well, I'd like to see your report."

Dan had no choice but to pick up the intercom on the table and quickly give a few instructions.

A moment later, there was a gentle knock on the conference room door.

A slender young woman with black-framed glasses and a typical East Asian face pushed the door open.

She placed a silver-gray laptop on the conference table in front of Dahn, kept her eyes down and did not make any eye contact with Musk. Then she quietly retreated and closed the door gently.

"Is this Lin Han?"

Musk remembered that he had seen the other person's photo before, but the makeup of the person in front of him was almost completely different from that in the photo.

"Yes, she is now one of the team's research assistants and has a solid grasp of the details of material synthesis."

As Dan answered, he quickly turned on his computer, entered the password, and pulled up an encrypted file labeled "LMFP-NMC_Phase1_TestSummary_Final."

The screen lit up, and complex charts and data instantly filled Musk's vision.

After all, Musk had a degree in physics and had a basic understanding of the concepts of each item, so he stopped talking and scanned every line of data and every curve on the screen.

He read very quickly, sometimes magnifying a detail in a chart, sometimes calculating the proportions of key parameters in his mind.

The only sounds in the conference room were the slight friction of his fingers across the touchpad and the occasional crisp click of the mouse.

Dan was standing by, feeling very uncomfortable.

Time passed minute by minute, and it was more than forty minutes later that Musk leaned back in his chair.

Instead of looking serious about the "problem", his face revealed a hint of confusion, or even... a sense of relief?

"Jeff, I've read the report. The data is great!"

He pointed at the screen, but his tone was not one of praise:

"We've already tested the initial capacity, energy density, charge and discharge performance at different rates, first coulombic efficiency, and even some abuse tests. So where's the 'slight drift' you mentioned? The cycle curve I saw is very stable! Isn't this a very successful cell?"

Daen's heart sank, thinking that the situation he was most worried about had happened.

"The problem isn't the performance of the individual cells themselves!" Dahn quickly flipped to another page, revealing a more complex set of charts. "Look here—this is the voltage consistency tracking data from our small module cycle test."

On the screen, more than a dozen colored curves representing different battery cell voltages overlap almost perfectly in the first few dozen charge and discharge cycles.

However, as the number of cycles approaches 100, subtle differentiation begins to appear. By 150 cycles, this differentiation has become visible to the naked eye.

Several curves began to "diverge" slowly but steadily, and the voltage difference was gradually widened.

"See that fork?" Dahn pointed at the curves that were beginning to deviate from the mainstream. "The root of the problem lies in the material system itself... This characteristic doesn't have much impact on individual cells, but it can cause static voltage differences between cells within the battery pack. It's like a group of soldiers with inconsistent steps, forced to march together. Over time, the team will inevitably become disorganized!"

"Isn't there a BMS system?" Musk asked again, "used to manage these battery cells?"

Dan shook his head:

"Our existing BMS voltage acquisition accuracy and algorithm are mainly designed for traditional ternary or iron-lithium batteries with a single voltage platform and a smooth curve. However, the mixture of lithium manganese iron phosphate and ternary lithium brings multiple different discharge platforms, such as 3.2V, 4.1V, 3.7V... In short, further testing is needed, otherwise it is likely to affect the actual performance of the battery."

Musk listened in silence, his fingers unconsciously drawing circles on the cold conference table.

The picture Dahn paints is undoubtedly technically persuasive.

But this technical prudence now seems so pale and powerless in the face of the roar of the bloodthirsty behemoth on Wall Street and the creaking of the company's stretched cash flow.

"Jeff," Musk finally said, his voice filled with undeniable determination, "I hear you talk about the technical risks, and I understand the logic behind it."

He pressed his hands on the table, emitting a strong sense of oppression:

"But the market won't give us eight to ten months! Investors, consumers, our competitors, everyone is watching Tesla's next step! The statement has been made, it's like spilled water, it can't be taken back! What we need now is a product! A real battery that can be installed in a car! Now! Immediately!"

He waved his hand, as if to dispel the invisible technological obstacles in the air:

"Think about what SpaceX does. They use repeated actual flights to iterate and verify! Sending rockets into space and collecting data in a real flight environment allows them to improve ten or even a hundred times faster than any ground-based testing. Why can't cars do the same?"

His tone was filled with undeniable incitement:

"All data from new energy vehicles will be transmitted back to the backend in real time. Once we deliver the product to users, it's like having thousands or even tens of thousands of platforms testing it simultaneously. Combined with real-world usage scenarios, the efficiency of data collection is definitely faster than in laboratories or test tracks!"

Dahn opened his mouth to emphasize the essential difference between laboratory-controlled testing and the complex, changeable, and even rough usage environment of users, and wanted to reiterate the inherent shortcomings of the BMS algorithm when facing a complex system like LMFP-NMC.

But the other party didn't give him a chance.

"As for that 'differentiation' issue you mentioned," Musk interrupted him, speaking rapidly, "you said it would take at least 100 to 150 complete cycles for it to become noticeable? So, based on the average user charging every three days, that would be... more than a year away! Right?"