Tesla's top battery supplier says Elon doesn't know how to make battery cells
Tesla's top battery cell supplier, CATL, is throwing some cold water on Tesla's battery plans and the CEO even said that Elon Musk "doesn't know how to make battery cells."
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) had an incredible rise and became the world's largest producer of battery cells for electric vehicles in the last few years – and by a significant margin.
It even supplies Tesla with many battery cells for its EV production at Gigafactory Shanghai.
CATL's success has made Robin Zeng, its founder and chairman, one of the foremost authorities on battery cell production, which makes his new comments on Tesla's battery cell production effort interesting.
Tesla buys most of its batttery cells from suppliers, inlcuding CATL and Panasonic, but it has also launched its own effort to produce its own cylindical 4680 battery cells, which are currently only used in the Cybertruck.
The company has had issues ramping up production of its own battery cells, but it reported making progress lately – going as far as claiming that its own cell will achieve better cost than anyone in the industry by the end of the year.
But CATL is not impressed.
Zeng spoke to Reuters recently and reported that he had a discussion with Musk earlier this year when he visited China. The CATL founder warned Musk that he thinks Tesla's 4680 effort will fail:
Zeng said he had told Musk directly that his bet on a cylindrical battery, known as the 4680, "is going to fail and never be successful."
In this interview, Zeng was very candid about his chat with Musk. He even touched on Musk's notorious issues with timelines.
He commented:
"His problem is overpromising. I talked to him," Zeng said. "Maybe something needs five years. But he says two years. I definitely asked him why. He told me he wanted to push people."
This has been the excuse that many Musk fans have been using to justify his missed timelines: he is trying to motivate his troups.
I disagree. When Musk overpromises, it may actually demotivate his staff.
CATL's expertise is in LFP cells and we know that Tesla is looking to make its own LFP cells at one point. That might be what Zeng is talking about here.
With that said, Tesla did claim that it is on the verge of accomplishing its cost target with the 4680 cell. It might be true, but Electrek has issues believing some of the things Tesla claims these days.
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dk moo :
bullrider_21 OP dk moo : What is this about?
dk moo bullrider_21 OP : do you agree with Zeng?
bullrider_21 OP dk moo : Zeng is an expert in battery technologies. Musk is not.
dk moo bullrider_21 OP : so you are saying that you believe the #1 competitors to Tesla and Elon's battery dominance is correct when he says "Elon is never going to succeed (4680 battery initiative).)
while I agree 4680 may not have gone as planned, he has already succeeded! are you just a China Propagandists? putting out China propganda about US companies by the Vice Chair of China Industry and Commerce on $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ really is shameful.
bullrider_21 OP dk moo : Are you just a Western propagandists? Are you a Tesla bull who thinks that they are not lies if you believe?
Warren Buffed : yilongma can make anything...