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New LFP Battery Will Give Model 3 RWD 300 Miles of Range: Or Will Tesla Reduce Costs Instead?

CATL is a Tesla battery supplier and announced production of its next generation M3P LFP battieres. These will give a Model 3 RWD 300 miles of range.

Tesla Supplier: CATL M3P LFP Batteries

Tesla gets its LFP batteries primarily from CATL, a Chinese based battery manufacturer. CATL has announced that it will soon begin production of its next generation battery: M3P LFP batteries.

This battery will have increased Energy density - about 210 kWh/kg, and enable EVs like the Model 3 RWD to get a range boost of about 10% or 27 miles with a similar sized battery pack to the existing LFP batteries CATL already supplies for Tesla.

This would put a Model 3 RWD at 299.2 miles of range (just about 300) and give that vehicle a more compelling use case.

CATL will most likely build battery plants in the U.S. in order to take advantage of the growing opportunity for Energy and EVs (electric vehicles) that are still in their infancy here.

It's also possible that Tesla will make the Model 3 RWD lighter and keep the same range in order to reduce costs on the Model 3.

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Model 3 RWD: 300 Miles of Range or Reduced Cost?

Whatever Tesla decides to do with their Model 3 RWD, it is going to be beneficial. The first option is to boost the range to 300 miles, and it is possible Tesla will do that.

A second option is to make a smaller battery, which will make the Tesla Model 3 RWD lighter, and try to keep its range around 272 miles. This will be more cost-effective for Tesla, but the consumer will have a vehicle that doesn't increase in range.

A third option, which I think would be amazing, is to have batteries be modular - such that you can plug and play sections of batteries into your car to increase the range of it. For example, when buying a Tesla, you could choose the range you wanted by selecting from the lowest amount to the highest amount, let's say between 250 and 300 miles of range.

That would be the most ideal situation, but I'm not sure if Tesla will do that, since it's simpler to just give a range and remove that customization.

I think Tesla is going to opt to keep the same range in the Model 3 RWD and reduce the cost of producing the vehicle. In the future, once saturation of EVs happens and battery costs have come down, then I think we'll see range boosts happening in greater amounts.

What do you think about this new battery from CATL, will Tesla boost the range of the Model 3 RWD, or will they keep the same range and reduce costs?

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Jeremy Johnson is a Tesla investor and supporter. He first invested in Tesla in 2017 after years of following Elon Musk and admiring his work ethic and intelligence. Since then, he's become a Tesla bull, covering anything about Tesla he can find, while also dabbling in other electric vehicle companies. Jeremy covers Tesla developments at Torque News. You can follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn to stay in touch and follow his Tesla news coverage on Torque News.

Image Credit, Tesla, Screenshot