Photo: Tesla and BYD
There are some rumors that emerge which are very conflicting. They make sense under some perspectives and no sense at all under other points of view. This is what happened with news that BYD would sell its Blade Battery to Tesla, reported by the Chinese website CLS.cn.
Although BYD has a separate battery business called Fudi, it is still a company that also makes cars. Would Tesla buy LFP cells from a direct competitor when it already buys them from CATL, the biggest cell manufacturer in the world? This question also has another side: would BYD – which is willing to sell more electric vehicles with the Han, Dolphin, and future e-platform 3.0 – help a direct competitor do the same?
The part that makes sense is that Tesla wants to produce a $25,000 car in China. To achieve that goal, it will have to buy the cheapest possible cells for that car, and it may happen that Fudi has the most competitive pricing for that.
On BYD’s side, it created Fudi precisely to make that a separate business, able to sell batteries for other carmakers. If Tesla is willing to buy LFP cells from it, why wouldn’t it produce them for the American company?
According to CLS.cn sources, the deal would be already well advanced. The Tesla vehicles that will get the Blade Battery would be undergoing “C-sample” tests. Here, this rumor could join with another one.
Ray4Tesla recently said on Twitter that Tesla would already have a running prototype for its entry-level vehicle. Despite allegedly being a reliable source that already saw some of the rumors be confirmed, the Tesla advocate recommends that people take this with a grain of salt.
If the rumor is correct, Tesla may have contacted BYD to increase its availability of LFP batteries. CATL may have already committed all the LFP cells it could deliver for the Model 3 and Model Y and could not have more room for anything, especially a vehicle that should have much larger sales volumes than these other two.
In the end, it may be a good deal both for Tesla and BYD, and this is all the sense that it has to make. BYD still talks to the press: to CLS.cn, it said it would comment on the rumor. When it is not right, companies just deny them. Where there is smoke...
The part that makes sense is that Tesla wants to produce a $25,000 car in China. To achieve that goal, it will have to buy the cheapest possible cells for that car, and it may happen that Fudi has the most competitive pricing for that.
On BYD’s side, it created Fudi precisely to make that a separate business, able to sell batteries for other carmakers. If Tesla is willing to buy LFP cells from it, why wouldn’t it produce them for the American company?
According to CLS.cn sources, the deal would be already well advanced. The Tesla vehicles that will get the Blade Battery would be undergoing “C-sample” tests. Here, this rumor could join with another one.
I would put some weight on this rumor as it comes from a pretty reliable source (?????). He brought several leaks to surface before, which later turned out to be true. However, like anything else, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Take it w/ a grain of salt
— Ray4Tesla???????????? (@ray4tesla) July 30, 2021
Ray4Tesla recently said on Twitter that Tesla would already have a running prototype for its entry-level vehicle. Despite allegedly being a reliable source that already saw some of the rumors be confirmed, the Tesla advocate recommends that people take this with a grain of salt.
If the rumor is correct, Tesla may have contacted BYD to increase its availability of LFP batteries. CATL may have already committed all the LFP cells it could deliver for the Model 3 and Model Y and could not have more room for anything, especially a vehicle that should have much larger sales volumes than these other two.
In the end, it may be a good deal both for Tesla and BYD, and this is all the sense that it has to make. BYD still talks to the press: to CLS.cn, it said it would comment on the rumor. When it is not right, companies just deny them. Where there is smoke...
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