Tesla’s Director of Battery Engineering has reportedly left the company

Tesla’s Director of Battery Engineering, Jon Wagner, has reportedly left the company to focus on a new role at a battery and powertrain startup in Redwood City, CA. The report first surfaced on Jalopnik states that Wagner departed Tesla in October, despite his LinkedIn profile still showing that he’s currently employed by the Silicon Valley electric car maker.

Wagner, who’s been at Tesla since 2013, has served as Tesla’s Interim Director for Body Engineering, Computer Aided Engineering, Materials, and Battery Manufacturing Engineering throughout his near five-year term. During his time at Tesla, Wagner led the cost-down and product improvement effort for Model S and Model X’s battery pack. He also pushed research and development efforts that would ultimately translate into technological innovation for Tesla’s Powerwall and Model 3.

According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Wagner is one of the inventors on a patent that was filed by Tesla for an Energy storage system with heat pipe thermal management. We’ve provided background for the patent as outlined by the USPTO.

Energy storage systems are used in a variety of contexts. For example, an electric vehicle can have a number of individual energy storage units (e.g., lithium-ion cells) stored inside a compartment, and this system is often referred to as a battery pack. Cells and other storage units generate heat during operation, such as during the charging process and when the cells are used to deliver energy, for example to the propulsion/traction system of the vehicle.

One cooling approach currently being used involves lithium-ion cells that are electrically connected by an anode terminal at the bottom of the cell, and a cathode terminal on top of the cell. These cells are arranged to all have the same orientation (e.g., “standing up”) with some spacing provided between all adjacent cells. The spacing facilitates a cooling conduit to run between the cells and be in contact with at least a portion of the outer surface of each cell. The cooling conduit has a coolant flowing through it, which removes thermal energy from inside the battery pack to some location on the outside, where heat can be safely dissipated. In order to provide a safe coolant flow, one must provide fluid connections into and out of the battery package, and the coolant path inside the battery pack must be reliable and have enough capacity.

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