BYD To Start Supply of Batteries to Tesla Soon

In what could be a key moment in the global electric vehicle industry, BYD will be supplying its batteries to the leading electric vehicle seller in the world – Tesla. The China-based company’s senior executive Lian Yubo said during an interview with the state controlled media house that BYD will sell its batteries ‘very soon’ to Tesla.

“We are now good friends with Elon Musk because we are preparing to supply batteries to Tesla very soon,” said Yubo.

BYD claims to be the largest maker of fleet including electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles. It has been strategizing to supply its batteries to automakers include Toyota. In the strict lockdowns forced by the Covid-19 pandemic, the dominance of BYD in the vehicle market remained undented. Moreover, it sold a record number of 106,000 cars.

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In 2020, BYD launched its novel ‘Blade Batteries’ that are lighter than the heavy lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries. BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu held that they are to be safer than other alternatives. The batteries are claimed to be of higher quality and do not catch fire even when badly damaged which leads to greater safety for man and material. Blade Batteries are thinner and longer and are known to optimize the use of the available space within the pack.

At present Tesla is being supplied with LFP batteries solely by CATL – another battery giant based out of China. Tesla has been installing these batteries in its electric cars since 2020 in its Shanghai manufacturing plant. The EV maker says that almost half of its electric vehicles are equipped with these LFP batteries. Tesla delivered almost 66,000 electric vehicles from its Shanghai factory in March and most of them are sold in China.

The key factor that allows greater penetration of LFP batteries is that they are quite cheaper when compared to the nickel-and-cobalt based battery cells that are predominantly used in the western market.

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