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Comment by mtgx | Hacker News Reader

You're discounting the fact that this will be released in 2020. We've had a 4x increase in density between 2010-2016.

Also, Model 3 benefits from the new smaller gigafactory-made battery packages (at least a 35% increase in density over older Model S battery packs).

When you take all of this into account, it's very likely that they could fit an older Model S-size battery pack (which is more from 2015-2016 era) in a Roadster 2 with 2x the density.

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Oh, I don't doubt, that Tesla can do it :). I just think it is interesting that the specs to the roadster point to a clear and significant increase in battery density. The Model S went from 80 to 100 kWh in 5 years, which is a nice increase but much smaller what they seem to plan with the roadster. And it would be exciting for electrical cars in general, because with that increase a more realistic 100 kWh battery changes from being something you can barely fit into a rather large Model S to something which should fit easily in much smaller cars designed for electric propulsion.

Seeing how Tesla struggles with new car production I would love to see them take a role like Samsung; they can still make popular flagship cars, but they can also become a primary battery supplier to other automakers, just like Samsung has extremely popular flagship smartphones, but also is a primary supplier of parts like OLED screens. I think selling their battery tech could help them become and stay profitable while smoothing over the wrinkles they have in car production.

This could also free up cash flow to give them more resources to work on self driving tech. Honestly, the idea of an electric Honda or Subaru with a "Powered by Tesla" logo could seems really exciting.

Unfortunately, Tesla does not build their own batteries.

Tesla claims that the Model 3 can only fit ~80 Kwh with the current "improved" technology. This is more than double that in an even smaller vehicle!

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