Novoray

Aug 13, 2023

CleanTechnica By 12 mins ago We’ve written many times and discussed on our Cleantech Talk podcast the fact that much if not most of the EV battery minerals of the world are mined or at least processed in China. However, it’s also worth noting that China dominates EV sales. Of the 10 best selling plugin vehicles in the world , 8 are Chinese models. The other two are Teslas. But hey, many Teslas are produced and sold in China as well, and we seldom look at where Tesla is getting its batteries and battery materials. According to a recent report from Nikkei, 39% of the battery material suppliers Tesla uses are Chinese companies. That’s not to say 39% of the battery materials in Tesla batteries come from Chinese — that figure could be 30% or could be 70% (or some other number of course). According to Nikkei, Tesla has 61 suppliers in the battery category. Also, of note here is how this may effect Tesla consumer incentives in the USA next year. If too much battery material supply is coming from China, the max federal tax credit for Tesla buyers will be $3,750 instead of $7,500. However, again, we don’t know how many of those battery-industry suppliers are supplying Tesla with components for its Chinese produced and sold vehicles versus vehicles sold in the US or elsewhere. “Nikkei worked with Tokyo’s Fronteo, which uses an original machine-learning algorithm to find data with specific characteristics, to analyze Tesla’s supply chain,” the Japanese outlet states. “An analysis of public information included in financial statements and press releases using artificial intelligence identified 13,428 companies believed to supply items for Tesla’s EV production down to ‘quinary’ suppliers — those five steps up the supply chain.” Across the board, for different components of its cars (from nonferrous smelting to inorganic chemistry), Tesla used a large portion of Chinese suppliers. Of course, that can’t come as a surprise when you consider that a huge portion of Tesla’s sales are in China, and those are vehicles produced at its Shanghai factory. Overall, 22% of companies supplying Tesla were identified as US companies and 17% were identified as Chinese companies. “Chinese companies that were found to be vital suppliers for Tesla included Ganfeng Lithium, a major maker of lithium products, with a chokepoint score of 6.8. Novoray, a major producer of inorganic compounds, scored 7.1, while Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, which makes cobalt materials, rated at 5.7,” Nikkei writes. “An analysis of the shareholders of these companies shows Novoray and Huayou Cobalt are under the influence of China’s government, which indirectly owns 9% and 12% of their shares, respectively.” Naturally, with China so centrally controlled, that puts a bit of risk on Tesla’s shoulders. As many have been keen to point out over the years, you never really see Elon Musk criticizing China or the Chinese government in any way. That’s very different from how he talks about more democratically elected US government leaders. Don’t expect much to change as Tesla continues to rely on both massive year-over-year growth and heavy reliance on production and sales in China. I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours.Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ... If you like what we do and want to support us, please chip in a bit monthly to help our team do what we do!Thank you! Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here . Former Tesla Battery Expert Leading Lyten Into New Lithium-Sulfur Battery Era: Advertisement