Tesla continues to lead the EV market, selling the largest number of EV vehicles in the world. In 2020, Tesla recorded nearly 500,000 sales, double the sales of its closest rival Volkswagen with 220,000 registrations. In order to power its cars, the California-based automaker uses a huge number of battery cells. As a top seller, Tesla also deployed more battery capacity for passenger electric vehicles and battery materials--namely lithium, nickel and graphite--than its four closest competitors combined.
In addition to ramping up production at its US plant, Tesla launched Giga Shanghai in China in 2020, which has produced around 140,000 vehicles. In parallel with the battery cells that were manufactured by Panasonic in the USA, Model 3 produced in China began to roll off the assembly line with the high nickel NCM 811 cells from LG Chem, and late in Q4 also began incorporating nickel- and cobalt-devoid LFP cells from CATL.
Source: Adamas Intelligence
In 2020, nearly 20% of all passenger EV battery capacity deployed onto roads by LG Energy Solution went into made-in-China (MIC) Tesla Model 3s, making it the cell supplier's widest channel to market for the calendar year, according to Adamas Intelligence.
Source: Adamas Intelligence
In 2020, less than 10% of all passenger EV battery capacity deployed onto roads by CATL went into MIC Tesla Model 3s, making it the cell supplier’s third greatest ‘vehicle’ to market for the calendar year, albeit the fastest growing customer on CATL’s books. However, it is worth considering that deliveries of CATL-supplied Tesla Model 3s to customers started only in Q4.
Also, in 2020, almost 90% of all battery capacity for passenger electric vehicles deployed on the roads by Panasonic went to Tesla vehicles, making it by far the cell supplier’s widest channel to market for the last year.
Source: Adamas Intelligence
© 2021, Eva Fox. All rights reserved.
_____________________________
We appreciate your readership! Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Article edited by @SmokeyShorts, you can follow him on Twitter
About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
