Robin Zeng, founding father of the world's largest EV battery firm, says Tesla CEO Elon Musk's huge guess on 4680 cylindrical cell expertise “will fail and by no means succeed.” Zeng, president of Up to date Amperex Expertise (CATL) in China, says Reuters that when Musk visited China in April, “We had a really huge debate and confirmed them. He was silent. He doesn't know make a battery.”
Tesla's four,680 cells, that are utilized in a few of its automobiles, together with the Cybertruck, are purported to have “5 instances” extra power capability, and the corporate introduced in September that it had produced 100 million of them. A latest report by data stated Musk gave the group engaged on the batteries a year-end deadline to handle prices and different points.
CATL batteries, in the meantime, go into every part from Tesla autos in China to Ford electrical autos in North America, such because the Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning. The corporate focuses on lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which typically don't have as a lot vary as the assorted cylindrical cell models utilized in many Tesla autos.
Though Zeng wasn't impressed with Musk's battery data, he thought he was good at chips, software program, , and “mechanical stuff.”
Zeng additionally commented that Musk's downside is the “over-promising” timeline, which he typically routinely does, particularly with Full Self-Driving expertise. “Possibly one thing takes 5 years. However he says two years. I positively requested him why. He advised me he needed to push individuals.”