Tesla unlikely to enter into EV battery mass production in 2022: Report

Tesla is unlikely to start its ambitious battery manufacturing at a mass scale this year, suggests a Reuters report. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long been planning to enter the battery manufacturing space, which would see the automaker making its own batteries at a cheaper rate and eventually helping the electric cars selling at a cheaper price. However, the report claims that this strategy has a lot of challenges ahead.

The report says though Tesla is changing the way how battery manufacturing is sonde, it is really difficult to manufacture the EV batteries at a speed and at a scale compatible enough for the automaker's production vehicle volume. In fact, Musk himself has said that making batteries at scale will be very difficult, but they are critical to the company's goal of building less expensive, longer-range electric cars that would keep Tesla ahead of a growing pack of competitors.

The US electric car major currently sources battery cells from suppliers such as Panasonic Corp, CATL, LG Energy Solution etc., just like other EV makers. In 2020, Elon Musk announced that Tesla aims to cut its vehicle production cost by 50 per cent by producing its own batteries. He also said that Tesla would sell its batteries to other EV makers as well.

The EV maker faces a lengthy process in ramping up a battery plant, complicated by the strategy to use new manufacturing technology called dry electrode coating. While Tesla is currently at the number one position in the global electric car market, the automaker's cars are highly expensive.

Even its most affordable EV Model 3 too comes at a high price. This high pricing for the Tesla cars come hindering the automaker's growth in many parts of the world. In order to reduce its vehicle price, Tesla is aiming at reducing the cost of production for the vehicles.