LFP lithium-ion battery cells from both CATL and BYD are anticipated to be used in Tesla’s battery energy storage systems (BESS) in China.
As per LatePost (via CnEVPost), BYD’s FinDreams battery division has obtained a contract covering over 20% of Tesla’s projected BESS production capacity in China. Probably 80 per cent of the batteries that remain will come from CATL.
With plans to begin production in Q1 2025, Tesla began building its BESS factory, sometimes referred to as the Megafactory, in the Lingang neighbourhood of Pudong, Shanghai, in May. Additionally, Tesla’s Gifafactory Shanghai, which produces the Model 3 and Model Y for international markets including China and the EU, is located in Shanghai.
Up to 10,000 Tesla Megapack utility-scale battery energy storage units are anticipated to be produced yearly by the facility. That’s forty gigawatt-hours of batteries. With BYD accounting for 20% of total output, that equates to 8 GWh annually.
Tesla already has one BESS factory in Lathrop, California, which the company says will soon provide 40 GWh of annual output. In Q1 2024, the company’s total battery energy storage system deployments exceeded 4 GWh.
A single Megapack container has roughly 3 megawatt-hours of capacity. Companies can order and install multiple units to achieve hundreds of MWh or even GWh-scale systems depending on their needs.
With one Megafactory in the U.S. and one in China, it’s an open question when we will see a similar investment in Europe. The European market for battery energy storage systems is expanding, so a large factory in the area would be a natural development.
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