Tesla Has Everyone Scrambling to Perfect the Next-Gen Battery It Announced Three Years Ago

Tesla has tapped China’s Ningbo Ronbay New Energy and Suzhou Dongshan Precision Manufacturing to help trim materials costs as it ramps up production of 4680 battery cells in the United States, according to the sources, who asked not to be named. [...]

As part of its efforts, Tesla also has signed a deal with Korea’s L&F Co to supply high-nickel cathodes that could increase the energy density of its 4680 cells, one of the sources said.

The automaker aims to augment its own output with 4680 cells from Korea’s LG Energy Solution and Japan’s Panasonic - an insurance policy to secure future EV production, two of the sources said. LG and Panasonic are expected to supply cells for Cybertruck, one of the sources said.

The automaker so far has been able to dry-coat the anode - the negative electrode - but is still having issues with dry-coating the cathode, where the most significant gains are expected to be made, the sources said.

Tesla’s attempt to ramp up production of the dry coating process has thus far resulted in enough batteries only for about 50,000 vehicles annually, Musk and company executives have said.

In 2020, Musk said Tesla would have enough 4680 capacity in-house to supply 1.3 million Model Ys.

Ariya production has been slowed by problems with the highly automated “intelligent factory” manufacturing system it built for the model at its plant in Tochigi, north of Tokyo, two of the people said.

Nissan designed a system that would allow it to produce cars with different powertrains - batteries, hybrids and internal combustion engines - on the same line.

Implementation has proved “an extremely, extremely high challenge” and the advanced paint line has become a persistent headache, one of the people said.

Nissan also faces shortages of plating for an electronic component for the Ariya after a fire at China-based supplier Wuxi Welnew Micro-Electronic in January, one of the people said. The supplier told Reuters it had shifted output to a second plant and was “working to recover production.”

In a statement to Reuters, Nissan said Ariya production had faced challenges including supply of semiconductors, disruptions in components shipments and the factory’s paint line. “Nissan is making a full and diligent effort to fully regain production capacity at the plant,” the company said.

The sweeping roadmap focused heavily on electrification but included a slew of business targets in including a global sales goal of 1.1 million vehicles for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026.

That goal is up from an expected 866,000 units this fiscal year. But the target still doesn’t quite build back to Mitsubishi Motor Corp.’s pre-pandemic worldwide volume of 1.127 million vehicles.

[CEO Takao] Kato’s electrification plan calls for investing between 1.4 trillion and 1.8 trillion yen ($10.26 billion to $13.19 billion) in R&D and facilities for electrification through 2030.

That will partly fund the rollout of nine new electrified models, including battery-electrics, hybrids and plug-in hybrids, over the next five years. They will be part of a global rollout plan for 16 models overall, including traditional internal combustion vehicles.

“Under the new midterm plan, we will consistently make more investment in r&d and capital expenditure in response to the upcoming era of transformation,” Kato said.

Among the electrified vehicles previewed by Kato were a full electric pickup truck, a two-row all-electric SUV, a two-row hybrid SUV and hybrid versions of its Xpander and another MPV nameplate. It also envisions electrified versions of the Outlander Sport and Colt.