Did Tesla CEO Elon Musk announce that his company had developed an aluminum-ion battery with 15-minute charging? No, that's not true: There is no evidence on the company's website or Musk's social media platforms of any such announcement as of December 6, 2024. In fact, Tesla continues to manufacture and refine its 4680 lithium-ion batteries at a plant near Corpus Christi, Texas.
The claim appeared in a post on Facebook (archived here) on December 1, 2024, under the banner "END OF LITHIUM." It said:
Breaking News: Elon Musk Announces Tesla's NEW Aluminum-ion Super Battery with 15-min Charging
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Dec 6 19:09:38 2024 UTC)
Lithium-ion batteries are the "predominant commercial form of rechargeable battery," according to the Clean Energy Institute at the University of Washington (archived here). But they have their drawbacks as well, including environmental concerns (archived here) and public safety challenges when they catch fire (archived here).
According to the U.S. National Science Foundation (archived here), an independent federal agency that "supports science and engineering," research shows a promising alternative to lithium-ion: aluminum-ion batteries (archived here). Aluminum-ion batteries "could enable electric vehicles to run longer on a single charge and would be cheaper to manufacture, while having a positive impact on the environment."
However, there is no evidence that Musk announced that Tesla has a new aluminum-ion super battery that can charge in 15 minutes.
Lead Stories searched for the term "aluminum" in Musk's X platform between January 1, 2024, and December 6, 2024, and got no results (archived here). The same search parameters for Tesla's X platform returned no results (archived here).
In fact, on September 14, 2024, the company announced on X (archived here) the production of the 100-millionth 4680 cell, Tesla's latest generation of lithium-ion batteries. Tesla announced in 2023 that it would begin refining lithium at a newly constructed plant near Corpus Christ, Texas (archived here).
For more Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving Elon Musk, click here.
