South Korea’s Economic Daily stated that Tesla has suspended its battery cooperation with BYD. In response to the foreign media’s report that “Tesla stopped its cooperation with BYD on batteries”, BYD’s latest response to the Financial Associated Press stated that it was “false information, which does not match the actual situation.”
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Previously, it was reported that BYD had already started to supply 10GWh batteries for Tesla European models last year, and even Tesla models equipped with blade batteries have entered the C-sample testing stage.
Lian Yubo, executive vice president of BYD Group and dean of the Automotive Engineering Research Institute, also said in an interview last year: “BYD respects Tesla and is also a good friend with Elon Musk. Tesla supplies the batteries.”
Korea Economic Daily stated that after the battery supply contract between Tesla and BYD on low-priced models such as the Model 3 standard version expired at the beginning of this year, they did not ask for continued supply. There are three possible reasons for the cessation of cooperation:
- The battery continuity problem of BYD Blade.
- Taking into account the subsidy policy related to electric vehicles in the United States.
- BYD directly competes with Tesla in manufacturing and exporting electric vehicles in Europe, India, Southeast Asia and other places, which is also the reason for the termination of the contract.
According to the article, LG Energy Solutions is accelerating the development of lithium iron phosphate batteries for electric vehicles at the request of Tesla, because Tesla’s upcoming cheaper models will have greater demand for lithium iron phosphate batteries.
