BYD Says it will Supply Batteries to Tesla but Tesla Says ‘No’
In a recent interview with Kate Kui, a senior Chinese financial media figure, Lian Yubo, Executive Vice President of Chinese automaker BYD and President of BYD’s Automotive Engineering Research Institute, said that BYD will supply batteries to Tesla. Regarding this news, a Tesla spokesperson responded to domestic media on Thursday, saying, “We have not heard this information.” Later, Kate Kui deleted the video of the interview.
Last year, it was reported that BYD would supply Tesla with blade batteries in the second quarter of this year, and the corresponding Tesla models had been under testing. The company officially had “no comment” on this matter, and related Tesla personnel also told media that they had not received official notice of the matter. However, some BYD insiders revealed that this is indeed true, and the first vehicle in question may be the Model Y.
At present, Tesla China has many battery suppliers, including LG from South Korea and Panasonic from Japan, as well as Chinese industry giant CATL. However, these are all battery manufacturers, and they are not directly involved the automobile manufacturing industry.
However, according to GGII, a research institute, in 2021, BYD had only provided battery products for companies such as China FAW, Jinkang Automobile, GAC BYD New Energy, Dongfeng Motor, and Changan Automobile. Furthermore, its external supply ratio was only 5.56%. There was some news last year that BYD was going to provide batteries to Hyundai, but Hyundai ended up choosing SK Innovation and CATL as their supplier.
According to the “Ranking of Domestic Car Enterprises’ Retail Sales in April 2022” published by the China Passenger Car Association, the company recently surpassed FAW-Volkswagen to take the top spot with a score of 104,770 units. It is also the only car company among the top 15 whose retail sales showed an increasing trend compared with last year.
BYD sold a total of 114,183 vehicles in May, an increase of 152.8% compared with 45,176 vehicles in the same period last year. Specifically, BYD’s DM series sold 60,834 vehicles in May, while the remaining 53,349 vehicles were its EV models. In addition, the firm’s cumulative sales volume from January to May this year reached 509,444 vehicles, accounting for 69.8% of the annual sales volume in 2021 (730,093 vehicles).
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In addition, Company Market Cap’s list of automakers showed on Tuesday that while Tesla ranks first in terms of total value, followed by Toyota, BYD has now surpassed Volkswagen to take third place. It is the only Chinese car enterprise currently in the top ten.
