CATL is considering going to Mexico to build a plant to produce batteries exclusively for Tesla and Ford.

According to Bloomberg, CATL is considering going to Mexico to build a battery factory specifically to produce power cells for Tesla and Ford vehicles.

According to the sources, the current planned locations are Juarez, Chihuahua, and Saltillo, Coahuila. Both cities are located near the Texas border, making it easy for Ningde Times to ship the batteries it produces to Tesla's Texas plant in the first place to meet the plant's capacity needs. Ningde Times is said to be considering investing $5 billion in the project, and it is unclear when it will be ready for production.

Ningde Times is already the world's largest power battery producer, with a long list of international car companies including Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW, Ford and other cooperative customers, and a leading global market share. According to data released by Bloomberg, Ningde Times is the world's largest battery manufacturer with 33.9% market share, followed by LG New Energy, BYD, Panasonic and SK On, with 14.4%, 12.1%, 10.5% and 6.8% market share respectively, which is far from Ningde Times.

Some time ago, CATL released a new generation of Kirin battery, which has a global record high volume utilization rate of 72% for the whole battery system. Its energy density of 255Wh/kg enables electric vehicles to have a range of over 1,000km, and it also supports 5-minute fast hot start and 10-minute fast charging, reaching industry-leading standards in all aspects.

Tesla, as the leader in the electric vehicle industry, is not lagging behind in battery technology. Its self-researched 4680 battery, with five times more energy per unit than the previous 21700 battery, can increase the vehicle's range by about 16 percent. The 4680 battery is slightly less comprehensive than the Kirin battery, but it is definitely one of the strongest power batteries available.

Unfortunately, only the Tesla Model Y produced in the Texas factory is currently the first to use the 4680 battery, and the capacity is relatively low. The main problem is that the capacity of 4680 batteries is too low to meet Tesla's production needs. In recent times, Samsung, Panasonic, LG New Energy and other battery manufacturers have spread the news that they are building production lines to produce 4680 batteries, from which we can see how high Tesla's demand for batteries is.

CATL went to Mexico to build a factory to produce 4680 batteries, which can better meet the demand of Tesla's overseas factories. In the future, all Tesla models should be upgraded to the new battery one after another, I hope the new car's range can have a brighter performance.


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John Murphy

John Murphy is the founder of TOPCARS Tesla Aftermarket Accessories, as well as an investor in Tesla and owner of the Model Y. He posts about Tesla news while running the site on a daily basis.

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