46mm is 3mm extra width, about the height of 3 stacked dimes.
But now you don’t need springs to accommodate 4 possibly variable-length cells (sort unprotected vs long protected), but can use a bunch of shallow domes or a big fat metal “leaf” to allow only a few mm of slop to make good solid contact.
I’d say it could probably drop into a Q8 right now by just boring it out and modding the bottom-inside of the tube.
These batteries make no sense in flashlights.
You don’t understand that the 40-50% increase in capacity and power is only noticeable in Tesla cars? Actually the larger the cell, the higher the car range will be. 4680 is not an ideal size. It’s just the maximum cell size they currently are able to produce.
But in a flashlight there wouldn’t be any difference between 5x18650 and 1x4680.
As Lightbringer points out it would fit in a 4x18650 space…
and fill the voids around the cells, providing more energy in the same volume - and eventually more available power/current.
Some prefer 8x18650 lights to 4x18650 because of ergonomy.
But others prefer it because of increased runtime.
Tell them that they’d be better off with 18650.
The press reports I read didn’t watch or didn’t understand the presentation. The form factor and tabless design are only part of what they are attempting. and they didn’t show the secret sauce…
It is pretty easy to connect the dots:
Model S Plaid 0-60 < 2.0 Seconds Top Speed 200mph. Estimated Range 520 miles.
Protoypes of the new battery are already in test vehicles. Musk says the prototypes are easy compared to bringing this to volume production.
There’s no way to install part of a 4680 backwards and ruin your flashlight, like you can with 4x 18650, so that’s a win. Just need reverse polarity protection, and that’s easy to do.
I guess if you’re happy with all your 5x18650 flashlights, feel free to not buy any 4680 lights. But I do hope they catch on with the big LiIon manufacturers and make their way to flashlights. With a new 4680 version, I would buy a new Q8, FT03 and D4s (at least).
Depending on price, I’d probably take 2. Hell, if I had to take a rasp to make the inside of a Q8 tube round, I’d do it. And those springs can be replaced or at worst cut down.
I thought the convention was to add a zero to the end so as not to confuse a cylindrical cell with some tiny button battery. I guess 46800 was too long for Elon, and he must be saving a fortune in ink for documentation with just 4680.
Anyone seen anything about what the actual chemistry is?
Watch the presentation. It is about an hour long but covers all your questions and more. Starts by explaing why they need the new battery. Somehow the press just didn’t understand.
This link skips the shareholder meeting and starts at battery day.
If you don’t want to sit through why they are doing this, skip to 1:08:20