Robin Zeng, the CEO of CATLthe world’s leading manufacturer of batteries for electric cars, faces the head of Tesla, Elon Musk. Zeng has criticized Elon Musk for his strategy around Tesla 4680 cellswhich could simply be a failure. But the Chinese businessman also had criticism of Elon Musk himself.
It was in statements to Reuters due to the possibility ofopen a battery factory in the United States that Robin Zeng talked about Elon Musk. Let us remember that CATL is one of the main battery suppliers for Tesla in China.
A criticized technology
The nerve of war in the electric car segment it is batteries. It is the most expensive element and the one that will ultimately determine the car’s autonomy. Making batteries cheaper and with higher energy density is a necessity for all manufacturers. With cheaper cars and the ability to store more energy, more customers would be reached.
For this reason, Tesla announced in 2020 the arrival of some new cells -the batteries that make up the battery of an electric car-, called 4680 and manufactured by Panasonic for Tesla. These are cylindrical in shape and measure 46 millimeters in diameter and 80 millimeters in height. The commonly used format is called 2170, which corresponds to a diameter of 21 millimeters and a height of 70 millimeters.
These new cells have a series of advantages, since they offer greater energy density, which means they can store more electricity for the same size. They are also cheaper to produce. However, for the head of CATL, this technology is far from being miraculous and considers it will be a failure.
Zeng tells Reuters that when Musk visited China in April, “we had a big discussion and I showed it to him. He remained silent. He doesn’t know how to make a battery”. For him, the Tesla boss is “good at chips, software, hardware and mechanical things,” but that’s where it all ends.
He explained that he had spoken to the American businessman before and had told him that his bet on the cylindrical battery “was going to fail and would never be successful.” That at least had the merit of being clear. However, the Chinese manager did not give more details about how he saw things.
CATL LFP 4C battery.
On the other hand, we cannot forget that CATL sells cells and batteries to Tesla in China, CATL being Tesla’s main supplier in China. CATL batteries are also found in American Fords, such as the Mustang Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning, manufactured by Ford under license. The company specializes in lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, which typically don’t have as much range as several cylindrical cell units used in many Tesla vehicles.
At the same time, Zeng expressed his willingness to open a battery factory in the United States. Currently, the US market is practically closed to Chinese car and battery manufacturers through different protectionist measures, such as a 100% tariff on cars.
However, Trump told Reuters in an interview in August: “We’re going to give incentives, and if China and other countries want to come here and sell the cars, they’re going to build plants here, and they’re going to hire our workers.” At CATL they are willing to take that opportunity and invest in the United States.
Thus, although Zeng is not the first to attack Tesla’s new cells, it cannot be ruled out that Zeng’s criticism of the 4680 is due to a possible future rivalry in the US market. In any case, Zeng’s statements may seem surprising. And in May 2022, CATL announced that it would supply cylindrical cells to BMW from 2025. These would be used, in particular, in the future electric 3 Series based on the new Neue Klasse platform.
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Source: www.motorpasion.com
