IN THE NEWS: Tesla sells $29000 battery for no profit, but is expected to raise Panasonic profits by 100%. Worlds largest grid battery

Tesla is readying the 3rd upgrade on the Roadster battery, also known as upgrade 3.0 or R80 upgrade. This is a hand-built replacement with the latest technology which Tesla says will cost Roadster upgraders $29000, which Tesla says is 'cost'. There aren't many Roadsters out there, only about 2500 of them, and not everyone wants an upgrade. But with a current build time of 3-5 packs per week, it's going to take a long time before a lot of owners get theirs. Still, at a 'drive nicely' pace you will get well over 300 miles per charge, it takes away a lot of stress, and the battery will last for another 10 years. This means if you bought a 2008 model, your upgrade battery will come at a good time.

Panasonic is the main provider of Tesla batteries, and Tesla is coming out with a more mass-market model. If they hit production expectations, we know how much battery that will take, and if Panasonic provides all that capacity, they are expecting to double sales numbers. That's a lot of Li-Ion.

Grid batteries made by utilities have been gaining in number over the last few years, with a great deal of innovation and chemistries tried. And now the biggest grid battery ever is scheduled to go online in about 5 years, all of it Li-Ion. About 18000 packs the general size of a Nissan Leaf pack are being put together to gather solar, wind, and off-peak energy and replace an NG peaker plant that is currently serving Los Angelos. Again, this is still a new idea and one of the most important things is to keep an eye on these installations in order to get good cost and production numbers.