SunPower Corporation (SPWR)

[Tom Joad]

News about battery development comes often, but industrializing what's discovered is another matter.

Johnson Controls is deeply involved. That's where I would look for another angle on industrializing the latest battery technology. From 2013-

Johnson Controls advanced battery industry creation project

We have the co-developer of the lithium battery making noise, but critics say the laws of physics have to be rewritten to accommodate the technology.

Goodenough introduces new technology

Suppose Tesla makes lithium batteries affordable but they're not as good as a hypothesized new technology? That's happened before as when alkaline batteries were the expensive new option for the old style batteries, and now lithium is the expensive new option for alkaline. That may pressure the margins on lithium but companies continued to make older technology batteries and I don't think they did that because they were loosing money.

I'm talking about flashlight type batteries for now, but I don't think it's wrong to extend the argument to cars and such. After all, Tesla's battery for cars is lots of small batteries linked.

I don't know of anyone that can see the future with certainty. Maybe Goodenough or the nano battery developers have something that's economically disruptive to Tesla, maybe not. It's just I don't believe battery developments are always economically disruptive.