Tesla has something up its sleeve and, as usual, it's not telling anyone about it yet. We should get a better idea of what it is at the upcoming "Powertrain and Battery Day" that Tesla has planned for later this year.

Tesla has given us some strong hints so far: it seems all but certain it will make its own line of batteries (ref), and that these new batteries will be manufactured with a completely new process. Witness Tesla's purchase of Hibar, a company that makes custom battery manufacturing equipment and its purchase of Maxwell, with its new dry electrode manufacturing process (ref). Now, mix that with Tesla's patent application for a whole new manufacturing method for battery packs (ref).