Tesla introduced its 4680 battery during a massive “Battery Day” event in late 2020, with company CEO Elon Musk then saying the new battery would more than halve the cost to produce batteries for its cars. This was important for Tesla’s plan to build a $25,000 entry-level EV. The battery exists and has been used to fill up the packs of Cybertrucks and some Texas-built Model Ys, but the entry-level car has been delayed long enough that the company hopes everyone has forgotten about it by now. Despite Tesla having allegedly built 100 million 4680 cells, the founder and boss man of CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited), the world’s largest battery manufacturer, basically said Tesla’s batteries suck shit and Elon is a dummy.
OK, so he didn’t say it in quite those words, but the intent is quite clear. In a recent discussion with Reuters, CATL boss Robin Zeng let his true feelings about Elon Musk out for all to see. The Chinese billionaire has had plenty of opportunity to discuss his feelings face-to-face with the Musk man, as CATL is a major supplier to Tesla’s factory in Shanghai, and is set to supply the Nevada Gigafactory used jointly by Panasonic and Tesla from 2025.
Zeng says he told Musk directly that the 4680 “is going to fail and never be successful. We had a very big debate, and I showed him. 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.”
CATL passenger vehicle packs tend to use lighter and higher-performance LiFePO4 pouch cells instead of the metal-cased cylinders that Tesla has typically produced.
Zeng went on to complain to Reuters about Musk’s unrealistic timelines and history of over-promising and under-delivering. According to Zeng, Musk told him that the reason he always commits to a two-year timeline for new projects is that he wants to “motivate and focus Tesla staffers” and that he believes anything beyond two years “might as well be infinity.”
“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. He probably himself thinks it needs five years, but if you believe him when he says two years, you will be in big trouble.”
