<story><title>Panasonic to begin mass producing new 4680 Tesla battery by March 2024</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/technology/panasonic-begin-mass-producing-new-tesla-battery-by-end-march-2022-02-28/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Gravityloss</author><text>This cylindrical form factor might make sense for batteries that have thermal runaway potential, to keep the unit size small so that the whole battery doesn&amp;#x27;t go into thermal runaway, only one cell.&lt;p&gt;But for LFP or iron based batteries which don&amp;#x27;t have such issues, the blade design should be cheaper, more maintainable, more space and weight efficient etc. There&amp;#x27;s no glue so you can actually just switch individual blades. Cooling channels can be straight.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vardump</author><text>Isn&amp;#x27;t cylindrical form factor simply easier and cheaper to manufacture? Decades of industry experience manufacturing a ton of cylindrical products.</text></comment>
<story><title>Panasonic to begin mass producing new 4680 Tesla battery by March 2024</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/technology/panasonic-begin-mass-producing-new-tesla-battery-by-end-march-2022-02-28/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Gravityloss</author><text>This cylindrical form factor might make sense for batteries that have thermal runaway potential, to keep the unit size small so that the whole battery doesn&amp;#x27;t go into thermal runaway, only one cell.&lt;p&gt;But for LFP or iron based batteries which don&amp;#x27;t have such issues, the blade design should be cheaper, more maintainable, more space and weight efficient etc. There&amp;#x27;s no glue so you can actually just switch individual blades. Cooling channels can be straight.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kube-system</author><text>Sounds like the form factor Toyota has used in their NiMH packs for basically forever.  They’re surprisingly serviceable for DIYers.</text></comment>