Electric vehicles all seem to use

AA size cells, ganged together.

Why not bigger?

They don't use AA size, they use

something bigger. Quick primer on
battery size numbers: For
cylindrical cells, they are
described with a number where the
first 2 digits are the diameter of
the cell in millimeters, and the
remainder is the length of the cell
in 10th’s of millimeters (this lets
the system accommodate “coin
cells” that are much shorter than
they are wide, like watch, key fob,
and hearing aid “batteries”).
2032 “Coin cell”, I have one in my
car key fob I need to replace

AA size is actually 14500 (14mm

across, 50.0mm long). You can buy
cells this size with Lithium Ion
chemistry and 3.6V nominal output,
but typically they'll be Zinc-
Manganese alkaline with 1.5V
nominal output (or Nickel-
Manganese Hydride with 1.4V for
rechargeable).
AA ‘button top' battery on the left,
14500 lithium ‘flat top' on the right.
The measurement is always the
total length and width, so flat tops
squeeze a little more into the same
‘size'

But by far the most common size

for cylindrical Li-Ion cells is 18650
(18mm around, 65mm long).
Essentially by historical accident
(at the time, it was the most
efficient to manufacture, because
8mm was the ideal depth for the
lithium chemistry and you needed
another 2mm for the central
cathode and the exterior casing),
this was the size settled on for
laptop batteries, and since that
size was the easiest up to get in
large quantities, most other
applications that wanted a cheap,
easily available battery went with
it as well.

18650 cells inside a laptop battery

For example, that 14500 AA sized

cell I mentioned above has 1/3 the
energy capacity of a 18650
(roughly 800 milli-amp hours vs.
2500 or so), but weights nearly half
as much (20 grams vs. 45). So in
terms of weight efficiency, an
electric vehicle battery based on
the smaller cells would be really
terrible.

Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar from the

70's

This doesn't hold true past a

critical size, you can buy a 26650
cell (I've seen them for some really
big nicotine vaping rigs), it is less
weight efficient than an 18650.
However, Tesla is no longer buying
their batteries, they're building
them, and have developed the
technology in directions that favor
a slightly larger cell. The cars they
are turning out now use 21700
cells, about a quarter of an inch
longer and an eighth of an inch
wider. The weight efficiency gains
are probably small (on the order of
single-digit percentage), but when
you're selling cars based on the
range they can travel, an extra 10–
20 miles matters.

Minor pedantic note: Batteries are

assemblies of multiple cells, I've
used it to refer to alkaline AA
“batteries” and coin cells because
that's a lost cause. But they aren't
technically a “battery” until they're
hooked together as multiples).