BYD to supply Tesla with batteries

Shanghai (Gasgoo)-BYD will supply batteries to Tesla, Lian Yubo, executive vice president of BYD, recently confirmed the information when he received an interview with CGTN anchor Kui Yingchun.

The battery supply cooperation between BYD and Tesla has been rumored several times. In February this year, a longtime BYD follower on the Chinese investment community Xueqiu disclosed that Tesla had officially placed orders to BYD's battery arm, FinDreams Battery, for “Blade” batteries, with a volume enough to manfuacture 204,000 vehicles per year.

BYD Blade battery; photo credit: BYD

The aforesaid batteries, model C112F, would be put into volume production in March this year, the source said then, adding that the Tesla vehicles equipped with BYD's Blade batteries were expected to hit the market in the second quarter of this year.

Nevertheless, BYD did not respond to the rumor.

In the domestic market, BYD recorded a power battery installed capacity of 14.48GWh for the first four months of this year, accounting for 22.75% of China's total capacity, according to data by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance. Notably, its Jan.-Apr. installed capacity of lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery stood at 14.25GWh.

Tesla last year said in its third-quarter investor deck that it was changing the battery chemistry used in all its standard-range electric vehicles to a version with a lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) cathode. The entry-level Model 3/Model Y produced in China had already been equipped with CATL’s LFP cells.

In 2021, Tesla for the first time became CATL's biggest client with a confirmed transaction value of 13.039 billion yuan ($1.956 billion), accounting for 10% of CATL's total annual revenue, according to CATL's 2021 financial results.