Elon Musk Hails 'Major' Battery Chemistry Breakthrough By Tesla Which Could Cut Down Costs: 'Incredibly Difficult'

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has hailed Tesla's new dry electrode process breakthrough in Lithium battery manufacturing.

Incredibly Difficult To Work At Scale

In a post on the social media platform X on Saturday, user @tslaming shared Tesla's patent filing, which showcased the company using an updated battery chemistry by incorporating a dry electrode process in its manufacturing.

Responding to the post, Musk hailed the breakthrough on Sunday. "Making the dry electrode process work at scale, which is a major breakthrough in lithium battery production technology, was incredibly difficult," the billionaire shared.

Significance Of This Breakthrough

Tesla's official X handle chipped in to outline the benefits of this breakthrough on Sunday, sharing that the dry electrode process helped in cutting costs and energy usage while also simplifying factories. The process also "dramatically" increases scalability, Tesla said.

To put it simply, a dry electrode process does not require a wet solvent like N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), which poses a significant risk to the environment and human health.

Instead of coating the electrode with the wet solvent, the dry electrode process directly coats the electrode with active materials by heat or pressure, which then helps move the ions from the cathode to the anode or vice versa.

Since the materials are directly applied to the electrode, the manufacturing process is simpler, while also being cost-effective and less impactful on the environment than the wet cathode process.

Tesla's Energy Storage Boom, Declining Sales

The news comes as Tesla's fourth-quarter earnings showcased a steady growth in the company's energy storage business, with annual energy storage deployments climbing to 46.7 gigawatt-hours. Tesla had also recorded a 44% YoY surge in its energy storage revenue back in the third quarter, coming in at $3.4 billion.

However, the company's sales have continued to decline, as the EV giant recorded 35,280 units sold in December 2025 in Europe, down 20.2% YoY from 2024’s 44,190 units sold.

According to Benzinga Edge Rankings, Tesla scores well on the Momentum metric and offers a favorable price trend in the Long term.

Price Action: TSLA had surged 3.32% to $430.41 at market close on Friday, but it slid 0.18% to $429.63 during the after-hours trading.

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