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Tesla’s 4680 battery supply chain collapses as partner writes down deal by 99%

electrek.co

361–370 of 836 posts

Re: Tesla’s 4680 battery supply chain collapses as partner writes down deal by 99%

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they're complacent and risk adverse.

VW, Mercedes, BMW, Peugeot, Polestar all make great EVs and they absolutely dominate the European market. They built manufacturing capacity in EU first for the domestic market, but are not competitive on the US market because of Trumps tariffs. China produces very cheap, they‘re still competitive even with tariffs. European car companies either have to build EV manufacturing capacity in the US first, or hope for the…

> VW, Mercedes, BMW, Peugeot, Polestar all make great EVs and they absolutely dominate the European market.

Maybe, but which part of the market? China imports are popular because they're good value at a much lower price point, even after tariffs.

Many EU makers have been late to, or totally absent from, the market for a car for the masses. I've always bought Asian cars and probably always will because they're just better value.

Re: Tesla’s 4680 battery supply chain collapses as partner writes down deal by 99%

#362
post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electric vehicles were the first types of cars invented. Musk also bought into Tesla. So its not like he invented some kind of alien technology. It was always about having good enough marketing to permit 10 years of R&D to make the car actually attractive.

Nobody with any knowledge at all is claiming that Elon Musk invented electric cars. The simple truth is that he made electric cars viable competitors to gas-powered cars. His genius is not that he invented them, it's that he profitably manufactured decently reliable cars for a price that lots of people found attractive. You can try and dismiss it as "marketing," but things like the Gigapress and FSD/Autopilot are imp…

Musk's behaviors should be separated into before drugs and after drugs. Since the day he smoked pot on camera, it's been all downhill.

Re: Tesla’s 4680 battery supply chain collapses as partner writes down deal by 99%

#363

For years, we’ve been told that the 4680 cell was the “holy grail” that would allow Tesla to produce a $25,000 electric car. For years, we've been told a lot of things that have never come to fruition. Just 6 months ago, we were told that Robotaxi would be available to half the US population by the end of the year. https://electrek.co/2025/07/23/elon-musk-with-straight-face-...

But he says that every year in the earnings call, he will say it again in the q1 call. 'By september' full of confidence and no one calling him out.

Re: Tesla’s 4680 battery supply chain collapses as partner writes down deal by 99%

#364

Tesla is actually starting to make cathodes in house via a dry process, which is why they are no longer buying cathode material from this supplier. Typical sloppy reporting from Electrek.

> Tesla is actually starting to make cathodes in house via a dry process, which is why they are no longer buying cathode material from this supplier. The latter part of this is speculative. Tesla may have begun shipping dry cathodes but it isn't clear that they're capable of matching the former third-party volume. Tesla would absolutely need the additional 4680 volume if Cybertruck sales were meeting their original p…

The entire article is speculative.

Re: Tesla’s 4680 battery supply chain collapses as partner writes down deal by 99%

#365
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best counter argument to that is that he did manage to predict/make into reality electric vehicles (when going into that industry was crazy) and reusable rockets. If someone makes a thousand moonshot attempts but still succeeds with two that's impressive.

Reusable rockets are a rehash of old tech that was considered - at the time - not economically feasible; Given how subject to interpretation spacex commercial numbers are, there is nothing indicating a clear cost or efficiency advantage compared with traditional launch systems so far. What we clearly know is that using software development methodologies to building critical hardware is as a bad idea as it sounds.

Weird hill to die on in 2025

If you had said this in 2015, we would be nodding along

Re: Tesla’s 4680 battery supply chain collapses as partner writes down deal by 99%

#366

Electrek’s ‘reporting’ has proven so one-sided that I take all their stories with a bucket of salt. Even if the truck has been a flop I doubt their whole battery program has been. Perhaps they’re rejigging suppliers and pausing whilst they get ready to ramp up cyber cab production lines

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Re: Tesla’s 4680 battery supply chain collapses as partner writes down deal by 99%

#368

Electrek’s ‘reporting’ has proven so one-sided that I take all their stories with a bucket of salt. Even if the truck has been a flop I doubt their whole battery program has been. Perhaps they’re rejigging suppliers and pausing whilst they get ready to ramp up cyber cab production lines

When somebody is siding with reality, especially a media source, that's a reason to listen to them more not less. And when it's straight up facts easily verifiable from others sources, pretending that it's not based in reality is just sticking your fingers in your ears and screaming "la la la la" which is something that even very few 12 year olds do.

The only fact was about the contract which is like a sentence of the article. Then it goes into a guessing game on what it could mean, with the most negative spin possible.

Re: Tesla’s 4680 battery supply chain collapses as partner writes down deal by 99%

#369

Electrek’s ‘reporting’ has proven so one-sided that I take all their stories with a bucket of salt. Even if the truck has been a flop I doubt their whole battery program has been. Perhaps they’re rejigging suppliers and pausing whilst they get ready to ramp up cyber cab production lines

The haters on here are ridiculous. If everyone who ever had a product that failed in the market was called a fraud on HN then probably almost everyone would be. SpaceX failed on their first three launches. All the haters here would have voted to shut it all down. Glad Elon's able to recover from business failures without going to the HN comments section to find out what he should do next.

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Re: Tesla’s 4680 battery supply chain collapses as partner writes down deal by 99%

#370
post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody with any knowledge at all is claiming that Elon Musk invented electric cars. The simple truth is that he made electric cars viable competitors to gas-powered cars. His genius is not that he invented them, it's that he profitably manufactured decently reliable cars for a price that lots of people found attractive. You can try and dismiss it as "marketing," but things like the Gigapress and FSD/Autopilot are imp…

Musk's behaviors should be separated into before drugs and after drugs. Since the day he smoked pot on camera, it's been all downhill.

Well reasoned.

Before he smoked that reefer, his space company was catching the largest booster ever made with metal chopsticks, all paid for by global satellite internet revenue.

His electric crossover/SUV was the best selling car in America.

Now that he’s gotten distracted by politics I dislike, he’s not doing any of that. Definitely no longer the world’s greatest builder.

/s

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