Alliance between the American Tesla and the Chinese Catl for the low-priced electric car?
There is no car brand that is not looking for the formula for a budget-priced electric car. Cost containment is also at the center of the alliance between Tesla and the Chinese battery champion Catl
While BYD seems to have separated its rivals by several lengths, apparently managing to be the first to finalize an electric car at an affordable price , other car manufacturers continue to experiment. Also in the game is Elon Musk , despite for years having said he was disinterested in the development of a budget-priced Tesla, which in this regard is pursuing an alliance with Contemporary Amperex Technology Company, the Chinese battery champion better known by the acronym Catl.
TESLA PULS THE BRAKE IN CHINA
The increase in the costs of raw materials following the war in Ukraine, the sharp drop in demand for electric cars, US protectionist policies (primarily Joe Biden 's anger) and the unknowns that a possible re-election of Donald would hold Trump for all those companies that have their plants in China seems to have pushed Tesla to broaden its market base.
Also because there is now no doubt that, after years of skyrocketing productivity, the electric car brand par excellence is pulling the brakes. According to rumors from the Bloomberg agency, the Texan company in its Shanghai plant has arranged to reduce the working week from the usual six and a half days to five.
WILL CATL BATTERIES REDUCE THE PRICE FOR TESLA?
Bloomberg also had the opportunity to interview Robin Zeng, president of the world's largest battery manufacturer, on the joint research on the electrochemical structures of individual battery cells carried out by Tesla and Catl.
Research that could be at the basis of the development of the much rumored "25 thousand euro Tesla". “There's always room for cost reduction but always depending on what the $25,000 car goal is,” Zeng told Bloomberg .
NOT JUST TESLA: CATL'S OTHER PARTNERSHIPS
The Texan company wanted to diversify its battery supplier base to reduce dependence on Panasonic, but Tesla is obviously not Catl's only customer. For example, it should be remembered that at the end of 2023 Stellantis signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Catl in the field of lithium-iron-phosphate batteries for electric vehicles produced in Europe by the manufacturer led by Carlos Tavares.
The agreement with the Japanese Toyota, which already has Nissan and Honda in its customer portfolio, dates back to the year before the pandemic. The Chinese giant does not even want to leave the battery swapping sector unattended and has signed a partnership agreement with the province of Guizhou, in south-west China, to establish a network of stations for the rapid replacement of batteries.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE $25,000 TESLA
Elon Musk had promised this variant, which had been renamed Model 2 online, during Battery Day 2020 and recently it seemed that it could also be built inside the Gigafactory in Berlin. According to some documents it seemed that this vehicle will be offered at least in a version with a 53 kWh battery (LFP cells).
Other rumors identified Shanghai as possible cradles of the low-cost electric car, which supplies the global market and allows it to control the Chinese one and the upcoming Mexican gigafactory which in Musk's plans will serve the USA and Canada. As long as Trump's re-election doesn't get in the way , that is.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/alleanza-tra-lamericana-tesla-e-la-cinese-catl-per-lauto-elettrica-a-prezzo-ribassato/ on Wed, 27 Mar 2024 11:58:56 +0000.