Tesla boss Elon Musk on March 9, 2020 in Washington. - Susan Walsh / AP / SIPA

Cars, trucks, rockets and why not planes? Elon Musk now plans to manufacture batteries intended to fly planes, as revealed by Automobile Propre, relayed by Capital .

Thanks to the development of a new technology, the boss of Tesla and Space X, estimates that his batteries can be loaded on electric planes in the coming years. As is often the case with the one who recently became the fourth richest person in the world, it all started with a tweet.

A company specializing in nanotechnology close to Tesla

A certain Sam Korus, analyst at Ark Invest, made a tweet about the installation, near the premises of Tesla in California, of the company Ampirius, specializing in nanotechnology. The specialist makes a link between this transfer and the declarations of the entrepreneur in 2019 on his dreams of electric planes in 4 to 5 years.

400 Wh / kg * with * high cycle life, produced in volume (not just a lab) is not far. Probably 3 to 4 years.

- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 24, 2020

Elon Musk was quick to respond, even giving a few details. The "400 Wh / kg with a large number of cycles, produced in volume (not just in the laboratory) are not far away, probably in 3 to 4 years", indicates the CEO. The boss of Tesla refers here to a measure of storable energy density essential for batteries so that their weight is not penalizing for the aircraft.

"Probably in 3 to 4 years"

The density in Tesla car batteries approaches 250 Wh / kg. To increase this density, engineers have switched from lithium-ion technology to lithium-metal cells without an anode, says Automobile Propre . But for now, the lifespan of these batteries is limited to 200 cycles, while it would be necessary to reach 1,000 cycles.

Tesla's batteries could equip the future jet of the company Eviation. Presented at the 2019 Paris Air Show, this aircraft is capable of carrying nine passengers over a distance of 1,000 km without any polluting emissions.

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