The world’s biggest battery maker says Elon Musk’s 4680 cell ‘is going to fail’

Robin Zeng, the laminitis of the world’s largest EV artillery company, says Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s large stake connected 4680 cylindrical compartment exertion “is going to neglect and ne'er beryllium successful.” Zeng, the president of China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), tells Reuters that erstwhile Musk visited China successful April, “We had a very large debate, and I showed him. He was silent. He doesn’t cognize really to make a battery.”

Tesla’s “tabless” 4680 cells, which are utilized successful immoderate of its cars, including the Cybertruck, are expected to person “five times” much power capacity, and the institution announced successful September it had produced 100 cardinal of them. A caller report by The Information said Musk had fixed the squad moving connected the batteries an extremity of the twelvemonth deadline to woody pinch costs and different problems.

CATL batteries, meanwhile, spell wrong everything from Tesla vehicles successful China to Ford EVs successful North America for illustration the Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning. The institution specializes successful lithium robust phosphate batteries (LFP), which mostly don’t get arsenic overmuch scope arsenic various cylindrical compartment units utilized successful galore Tesla vehicles.

While Zeng wasn’t impressed pinch Musk’s artillery knowledge, he thought he was bully pinch chips, software, hardware, and “mechanical things.”

Zeng besides commented that Musk’s problem is “overpromising” timelines, which he often does habitually, particularly regarding Full Self-Driving technology. “Maybe thing needs 5 years. But he says 2 years. I decidedly asked him why. He told maine he wanted to push people.”