Tesla is having points producing 4680 cells for Cybertruck, sketchy report says

Tesla is reportedly having points producing 4680 battery cells for the Cybertruck, however the report is a bit sketchy.

In the present day, Reuters launched a report claiming that Tesla is having main points with its 4680 battery cell manufacturing, and it’s “one of many important bottlenecks” in making the Cybertruck:

Tesla’s Giga Texas manufacturing unit is at the moment churning out 4680 battery cells at fee solely ample to energy about 24,000 Cybertrucks a 12 months, or a couple of tenth of the required output, based on Reuters calculations primarily based on a mixture of public information and unpublished figures supplied by sources.

Reuters has a historical past of destructive deceptive studies about Tesla, as we highlighted in a latest report, so we at all times take them with a grain of salt.

As for this one, no matter battery cells, Tesla wouldn’t be producing the Cybertruck at a fee of 24,000 items per 12 months at this level. Due to this fact, it will make sense to throttle the battery cell manufacturing to match its total manufacturing capability for the brand-new Cybertruck.

However, the report does declare that 9 folks advised Reuters that Tesla remains to be having vital points with its dry-coating know-how for the 4680 cell:

The 9 folks, who spoke to Reuters on situation of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, stated Tesla had but to crack dry-coating on the industrial scale wanted to make 4680 batteries quick sufficient to hit its manufacturing targets.

The report particularly claims that the problem is with dry coating the cathode. They added:

The sources stated Tesla was struggling to combine the cathode supplies, which embody lithium, manganese and nickel, with a binder and stick them to a metallic foil to supply a cathode – with out utilizing moisture.

Tesla didn’t touch upon the report, however Drew Baglino, Tesla’s SVP of engineering, did beforehand say that the automaker was in a position to ramp up battery manufacturing at two strains at Gigafactory Texas, and it plans to have eight strains by the tip of 2024. The corporate will solely deploy all strains as soon as it could possibly replicate the success of the primary two strains constantly.

Electrek’s Take

I say “sketchy” as a result of I critically doubt 4680 is a significant bottleneck in Cybertruck manufacturing proper now. I believe they simply linked it to the pickup for clicks.

However there could be some validity to the declare that Tesla remains to be having points with the dry coating know-how. It’s value maintaining a tally of that, as 4680 cell manufacturing is essential to Tesla’s future EV applications.