Panasonic’s new Tesla battery lasts five times longer and costs half as much

Battery production at Panasonic’s factory will increase 100-fold making these new cells

Panasonic has developed an advanced prototype battery for Tesla cars with five times the capacity of standard ones.

The battery was unveiled at a media roundtable, Automotive News reports, and will cost 50 per cent less to make and will boost production at the Japanese company “100-fold” by the end of the decade.

The cell will be eight centimetres tall and approximately five centremetres wide, with the Panasonic having established a test line in Japan to produce what the company calls the 4680 format.

"We have developed this because of the strong desire of the other party, and we think this can only lead to stronger ties," Kazuo Tadanobu, Panasonic’s VP of industrial solutions, said.

However, Panasonic has no plans to build a cheaper lithium-iron-phosphate batteries for the Standard Range Tesla models, which Tesla plans to integrate into its cars in the future.

Recently, rental car company Hertz announced that it would buy 100,000 electric vehicles from Tesla with interim CEO Mark Fields saying that he believed electric vehicles are increasingly moving into the mainstream.

“More are willing to try and buy,” he said. “It’s pretty stunning.”

Although Tesla’s electric batteries are impressive, the company has been found to have limited them in the past. In May this year, a Norwegian court found that Tesla throttled charge speed and battery capacity.