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.”

The CATL founder, who has a PhD in physics, was also unimpressed with Musk’s electrochemistry knowledge when debating Tesla’s 4680 batteyr cell effort:

“We had a very big debate, and I showed him,” Zeng said. “He was silent. He doesn’t know how to make a battery. It’s about electrochemistry. He’s good for the chips, the software, the hardware, the mechanical things.”

In this interview, Zeng was very candid about his chat with Musk. He even touched on Musk’s notirous 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.

Electrek’s Take

I am surprised that the head of a supplier would talk about the CEO of one of his main customers like that.

Obviously, he is biased since Tesla’s battery effort could cut into his business, but at the same time, Tesla has always made it clear that they would always need to keep buying from battery suppliers.

I think what is most interesting here is that 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 I have issues believing some of the things Tesla claims these days.

Kia is hitting the brakes on production of its first three-row electric SUV in the US. Despite the EV9’s successful debut, new concerns about the EV tax credit are reportedly causing Kia to scale back — at least for now.

After another record-breaking US sales month in October, Kia said the impressive growth is driven by “strong demand” for its electrified lineup.

Kia sold over 69,900 vehicles last month, up 16% from the previous record in October 2023. Electric vehicles (EVs) led the growth, with sales surging 70% year over year (YOY). Plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and hybrid (HEV) sales were up 65% and 49%, respectively.

One of the biggest factors behind Kia’s growing sales numbers is the addition of its first three-row electric SUV, the EV9.

After delivering the first models last December, Kia has already sold nearly 18,000 EV9s in the US through October. That’s even more than its first dedicated electric vehicle, the EV6, with around 17,700 models sold through the first ten months of 2024.

Despite the early success, Kia reportedly plans to slow output due to new concerns over the federal EV tax credit.

Kia slowing EV9 output in the US over EV tax credit rules

According to The Korea Herald, Hyundai Motor Group is slowing Kia EV9 output at its new $7.6 billion EV manufacturing plant in Georgia.

After kicking off production at its massive new Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA) just last month, EV9 output is already being put on the back burner.

Industry sources said Hyundai produced just 21 EV9s in the third quarter. Only one of those was sold in the US. Meanwhile, Kia is still selling an average of 1,800 EV9 models each month.

Most EV9 models, even those for the US, are still built at Kia’s manufacturing plant in Korea. In addition, SK On manufactures its battery cells in China.

Because of this, the three-row electric SUV only qualifies for a partial $3,750 tax credit. “The EV9 is ineligible to benefit from the full IRA benefits due to the battery issue, along with other factors, including price,” A Kia official explained.

Although EV9 prices start at around $55,000, premium trims, like the GT-Line model, cost upwards of $80,000, which exceeds the IRA threshold for SUVs and pickups ($80,000).

Hyundai is fast-tracking production at its battery cell plant in GA with SK On to gain compliance. The plant is expected to have a 35 GWh annual capacity, enough for over 500,000 EVs. The Korean automaker is building another battery plant with LG Energy in GA with an expected 30 GWh annual capacity.

With President-elect Trump’s transition team reportedly planning to kill the EV tax credit, things could get more complicated next year.

“Reducing the EV subsidy could effectively end benefits for foreign automakers with US facilities,” Kim Pil-su, a car engineering professor at Daelim University, explained. If this is the case, Kia will likely need to boost incentives.

Kia’s EV9 is already among the most discounted EVs in the US. According to Motor Intelligence, EV9 average discounts reached over $18,000 this summer.

The company is currently offering $7,500 in Customer Cash, a $1,500 offer for Tesla owners and lesseees, and an up to $1,000 Season of New Traditions Retail Cash Bonus.

With the new 2025 EV9 hitting dealerships, Kia is offering clearance prices on 2024 models. We can help you take advantage of the savings. You can use our link to view deals on 2024 and 2025 Kia EV9 models at a dealer near you.

Tesla (TSLA) is soaring in anticipation that Trump’s administration will make an easier path for Tesla’s self-driving tech, which still doesn’t work, to be approved federally.

Currently, self-driving technology is addressed at the state level, with each state having its own regulations for approving self-driving systems on its roads.

During a conference call following Tesla’s last earnings results, CEO Elon Musk, who has been financially backing the reelection of Donald Trump and “fully endorsed” him, hinted that he could work with the new federal government to get a federal self-driving approval process going.

Now, Bloomberg reports that Trump’s transition team is discussing making it a priority:

Members of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team have told advisers they plan to make a federal framework for fully self-driving vehicles one of the Transportation Department’s priorities, according to people familiar with the matter.

This news sent Tesla’s stock up 7%, or an increase of 470 billion in value.

That’s surprising because before now, the regulatory aspect of Tesla’s self-driving effort didn’t seem like the biggest hurdle – making the technology work still seems to be the biggest hurdle.

Tesla has been wrong about its self-driving timeline too many times to count, but the latest one is to release unsupervised self-driving in California and Texas in Q2 2025.

Ashok Elluswamy, the head of FSD at Tesla, stated that Tesla’s goal is to achieve over 600,000 miles between critical disengagement, which is based on NHTSA’s data of accidents between human-driven miles.

Tesla has not released any data about its self-driving effort, and therefore, the best data available is crowdsourced. That data currently shows about 241 miles between critical disengagement:

Tesla would need a 2,500x improvement in miles between disengagement to reach a safer-than-human level, which has been the goal before getting regulatory approval.

Electrek’s Take

That sounds like a much bigger hurdle than getting regulatory approval.

I actually agree with the Trump administration that it makes more sense to have a federal framework for approving self-driving systems than at the state level.

But I don’t see how it will help Tesla since there’s no clear path to Tesla achieving a level safer than human with their current approach any time soon.

At the current pace, the 2,500x improvement would take 10 years and we have yet to see a significant acceleration to the pace of improvement.