Tesla Secures Battery Cell Supply After Closing A Deal World's Largest Supplier

Many people don't know this, but CATL is the world's largest supplier of batteries for electric vehicles. It dominates the market in China and has been supplying to Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory. In a bid to be ahead of inbound rivals, Tesla has now secured a long term supply of battery cells with CATL after closing a new deal.

"The signing of the agreement represents Tesla's further recognition of the product quality and production capacity of the company's batteries, which is conducive to strengthening the long-term and stable cooperative relationship between the company and Tesla, and in line with the interests of the company and its shareholders," said Tesla in an official statement.

Tesla procured a deal with CATL mostly for scaling production of the Model 3 and Model Y

This is in addition to Panasonic which is Tesla's oldest partner which even has a presence at the Nevada Gigafactory. Panasonic made a lot of money off Tesla too as it invested in it and then recently sold of its gains. Its new CEO has also said that it would be open to investing in the new 4680 tabless cells that Tesla has been talking up recently. Panasonic in fact is helping prototype the new technology.

Tesla even has dealt with LG Energy Solutions. But the deal with CATL is important as it now has supple beyond 2022 as its previous deal which was signed last just till next year. Right now, there is no word on what kind of batteries these are but it is safe to presume that if the tabless format works in the prototype phase it will scale to other vendors as well. In fact, LG Energy Solutions have announced batteries that are similar to the tabless concept.