Tesla (TSLA) Plans China Exit with Full In-House Battery Push
June 3 – Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) may be the lone U.S. carmaker trying to remove China from its battery supply chain, Piper Sandler said in a recent note.
The investment firm spoke with battery expert Jordan Giesige, who highlighted Tesla’s push to build 4680 cells with near-zero dependence on Chinese suppliers. Full autonomy won’t happen overnight, but Tesla has a clear path forward.
That roadmap involves refining its own lithium, making cathode active materials, coating electrodes in-house, and assembling batteries entirely on its premises. Piper Sandler emphasized Tesla’s dry battery electrode (DBE) technology, which is roughly five to six times faster than standard wet coating. Scaling this process could shave significant costs.
On the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) front, Tesla is reportedly targeting about 10 gigawatt-hours of domestic LFP capacity. That volume could supply roughly a quarter of the 40 GWh needed for U.S. Megapack production.
Piper Sandler noted no other American automaker is even attempting this level of vertical integration. Even if Tesla’s novel refining methods hit snags, it wouldn’t be at a disadvantage, because competitors haven’t laid out a comparable plan. Yet experts caution that fully weaning off China could still take several years.
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Tesla (TSLA) Plans China Exit with Full In-House Battery Push, source
