Posted: 26 Dec 2019 06:09 AM PST

Tesla has made a lot of battery moves this year and it is closing the year by filing a patent on a new chemistry for better, longer-lasting and cheaper batteries.

Earlier this year, we reported on Tesla's battery research partner, Jeff Dahn and his team at Dalhousie University, unveiling the impressive results of tests on a new battery cell that could last over 1 million miles in an electric vehicle.

The new battery tested is a Li-Ion battery cell with a next-generation "single crystal" NMC cathode and a new advanced electrolyte.

Since then, Tesla has been filing US and international patents on the new battery chemistry.

The automaker, through its 'Tesla Motors Canada' subsidiary, filed a new international patent called 'Dioxazolones and nitrile sulfites as electrolyte additives for lithium-ion batteries'.

They wrote in the patent application:

"This disclosure covers novel battery systems with fewer operative, electrolyte additives that may be used in different energy storage applications, for example, in vehicle and grid-storage. More specifically, this disclosure includes additive electrolyte systems that enhance performance and lifetime of lithium-ion batteries, while reducing costs from other systems that rely on more or other additives."

Tesla wrote in the conclusion of the patent application for the new battery chemistry:

"This work characterizes the high temperature storage and long-term cycling performance of lithium-ion NMC/graphite pouch cells prepared with a recently developed electrolyte additive, MDO, and two new additives, PDO and BS. Differential capacity versus voltage indicates that both MDO and PDO form passive SEI layers on the graphite electrode surface during cell formation, whereas BS does not. The reduction features are generally consistent with DFT-predicted values, although the presence of multiple reduction peaks requires additional study to rationalize. As individual additives, PDO-containing cells show the best performance although these are nonetheless out-performed by VC-containing cells. The additives were also tested in binary blends with VC, DTD, and LFO. In long-term cycling tests, cells prepared with 2%PDO/l%DTD and 2%PDO/l%LFO additive blends outperform VC-containing cells. However, the high temperature storage behavior of 2%PDO/l%LFO is superior than that of the 2%PDO/l%DTD blend. A person of skill in the art will understand that compositions described herein may be further optimized, for example, by adjusting the ratio of primary and secondary additives or through introducing ternary blends."

The patent application says that the new two-additive mixtures in an electrolyte solvent can be used with lithium nickel manganese cobalt compounds, also known as an NMC battery chemistry.

It is commonly used in electric vehicles by many automakers, but not by Tesla. The company used the technology in its stationary energy storage systems, but it uses NCA for its vehicle battery cells.

The patent filed by Tesla's battery research group mentions that the technology would be useful for both electric vehicles and grid-storage.

Interestingly, Tesla has been rumored to be switching to NCM battery cells for Chinese Model 3 vehicles.

Tesla has been filing new battery patents as it has also been making moves toward building its own battery cells.

Earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that they built Model 3 to last as long as a commercial truck, a million miles, and the battery modules should last between 300,000 miles and 500,000 miles.

However, the CEO claimed that Tesla has a new battery coming up next year that will last a million miles.

Here's Tesla's full patent application:

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Amazon has its best holiday season ever - CNN

Posted: 26 Dec 2019 07:13 AM PST

Buoyed by sales of tens of millions of its own gadgets, Amazon (AMZN) said its top-sellers this holiday season included the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick and Echo Show 5. The Alexa-enabled devices have been huge hits for Amazon in the past several years, helping the company capture the largest share of the voice assistant market.

People bought stuff Amazon didn't make, too. Third-parties sold way more products on Amazon this year than they did last year. Although Amazon is notoriously and, for investors, annoyingly coy about specific sales data, the company said third-party product sales increased by a double digit percentage over last year, surpassing one billion items sold.

Fake and dangerous kids products are turning up for sale on Amazon

Among the most popular were LOL Surprise Glitter Globe Doll Winter Disco Series with Glitter Hair, iRobot's (IRBT) Roomba 675 vacuum and, of course, the perennially popular Instant Pot Duo 80 pressure cooker. Well, those were the most popular items for humans. Dogs enjoyed SmartSticks peanut butter chews, and cats were particularly into Temptations Classic cat treats this holiday season.

"The Guardians" by John Grisham was the most-sought-after book during the holidays. "Home Alone" was the most-searched holiday movie on Fire TV, and Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" has been the most-played song on Amazon Music since Thanksgiving.

Amazon's stock rose about 1% Thursday.

How everyone else fared

People also shopped at places other than Amazon. The strong economy and shortened holiday season helped stores score big off last-minute shopping.

MasterCard (MA) reported Thursday that American retail sales rose 3.4% between November and Christmas Eve, compared to a year ago. Online sales soared 18.8% but only 1.2% for in-store sales. Still, digital only made up less than 15% of sales, so the much-discussed brick-and-mortar retail apocalypse may have to wait.

In its SpendingPulse report, the credit card company noted that a late Thanksgiving (compared to 2018) essentially took a week out of the holiday shopping season. To make up for that, retailers started offering holiday deals before Thanksgiving, helping boost overall sales.

The biggest shopping day of the year dwarfed Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Last-minute shopping helped too. Saturday, December 21, also known as Super Saturday, was US retail's best day ever, pulling in a record $34.4 billion, according to Customer Growth Partners, a consulting and research firm. That totaled more than four times the sales from this year's Cyber Monday.

Electronics and appliances won the holiday shopping season, with sales soaring 4.6% over last year (and 10.7% online), MasterCard reported. Specialty apparel was the online winner, soaring 17%. Jewelry was a big hit too. Sales grew 1.8% overall and 8.8% online.

But department stores struggled. Sales fell 1.8% overall, even as online sales grew 6.9%. Big department stores, such as Sears, JCPenney (JCP), Kohl's (KSS) and Macy's (M), have lost shoppers to big-box stores, such as Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT). Specialty stores and Amazon have also captured customers from department stores, which have been hurt particularly hard by slumping traffic at malls.

Tiffany (TIF), which has struggled lately because of the trade war with China, said its sales were up between 1% and 3% between November 1 and December 24, compared with 2018. Overall Chinese sales improved, even though a recession in Hong Kong continued to weigh on sales. Protests in Hong Kong have weighed on that region's economy.

Tiffany will close its flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York in the middle of January so it can renovate the iconic store. It will temporary move around the corner. The company's stock was unchanged Thursday.

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Apple in 2020: What to expect? - CNET

Posted: 26 Dec 2019 05:00 AM PST