Robin Zeng, founder of the world's largest EV battery company, says Tesla CEO Elon Musk's big bet on 4680 cylindrical cell technology “is going to fail and will never succeed.” Zeng is the chairman of China Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL). says reuters When Musk visited China in April, “we had a huge debate, and I showed him that. He was silent. He doesn’t know how to make batteries.”
Tesla's “tableless” 4680 cell, used in some of its cars, including the Cybertruck, is believed to have “five timesMore energy efficiency, and the company announced in september It produced 100 million of them. a fresh report by Information Said Musk had given the team working on the battery a deadline of the end of the year to deal with cost and other problems.
Meanwhile, CATL batteries go inside everything from Tesla vehicles in China to Ford EVs in North America like the Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning. The company specializes in lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP), which typically don't get as much range as the various cylindrical cell units used in many Tesla vehicles.
While Zeng was not impressed with Musk's battery knowledge, he thought he was good at chips, software, hardware, and “mechanical things”.
Zeng also commented that Musk's problem is “over-promising” timelines, which he often does. according to practiceEspecially with regard to full self-driving technology. “Maybe five years are needed for something. But he says two years. I of course asked him why. He told me he wants to move people forward.”