Tesla’s potential as a future battery supplier for other automakers is being paved by the ongoing struggles of the company’s rivals today. This idea is becoming more and more feasible as more and more veteran automakers experience battery-related challenges in their respective electric car programs.
Building electric cars is no easy task. As evidenced by the issues plaguing the rollout of the mass-market Volkswagen ID.3, making good electric vehicles is not just a matter of stuffing an electric motor and batteries in an existing platform for an internal combustion car. Making EVs, especially good, high-performing ones like the Tesla Model 3, requires mastery of a different set of skills, such as software management and battery optimizations.
The latter is where a vast divide exists between Tesla and legacy automakers today. Tesla utilizes its own proprietary battery tech for its vehicles. The 2170 cells for its Model 3 sedan are even being produced at Giga Nevada, a massive factory that is poised to become one of the largest in the world by footprint once it’s completed. Veteran automakers, on the other hand, rely on suppliers such as LG Chem to supply their EVs’ batteries.
LG Chem supplies cells to several automakers, including Audi and Jaguar, whose e-tron and I-PACE both utilize the company’s batteries. Rivian, which uses 2170 cells for the R1T pickup and the R1S SUV, source their cells from the South Korean firm as well. More recently, even startup Lucid Motors, which is reportedly on the cusp of releasing its first vehicle, the Air, also announced that it would be sourcing cells from LG Chem. This is great for LG Chem, as it validates the quality and capabilities of its batteries, but it also does not bode well for all the companies looking to acquire adequate battery supply for their electric cars.
As it is, LG Chem appears to be having difficulties meeting the demand for its vehicles already. Shortages of cells from the battery manufacturer have reportedly become the cause for the recent halts in the Audi e-tron and the Jaguar I-PACE’s production. And this is just with premium-priced, mid-volume SUVs. When high-volume vehicles enter the market, such as the Volkswagen ID.3 (which also gets some of its cells from LG Chem), the South Korean firm will likely find it even more challenging to supply batteries to all its clients.
This supply issue could become a serious challenge to the electric car revolution. With this in mind, and with even more electric cars coming in the next few years, a need for another battery supplier emerges. This is where Tesla comes in. Tesla has been expanding its business to not just focus on building electric cars, as evidenced by the company’s energy and battery storage initiatives. Considering Tesla’s experience in building EVs, as well as the industry-leading quality of its batteries, the company may very well be poised to become one of the leading suppliers of cells for other electric car makers.
Interestingly enough, CEO Elon Musk has mentioned the possibility of Tesla serving as a supplier of batteries and powertrains to other automakers in the past. This was explained by Musk himself during the Q3 2019 earnings call. “It would be consistent with the mission of Tesla to help other car companies with electric vehicles on the battery and powertrain front, possibly on other fronts. So it’s something we’re open to. We’re definitely open to supplying batteries and powertrains and perhaps other things to other car companies,” he said.
Fiat-Chrysler CEO Steve Manley also suggested the idea during a Q&A session. Speaking about the company’s electric vehicle strategy, Manley mentioned that Fiat-Chrysler would likely be purchasing key electric car components from the Silicon Valley-based company. “It would be wrong of me to say no,” Manley said, adding that batteries and drivetrains will likely be among the parts that FCA will be purchasing from Tesla. The CEO also expressed the possibility of FCA acquiring a “skateboard” platform from Tesla, which it would use for its own vehicles.
Tesla is at a point where its lead in the electric car space is undeniable. The company is also at a point where its manufacturing systems are more refined than before. Tesla may thus be reaching a stage where it is large and robust enough to support other automakers that are also adopting electric cars. As veteran carmakers transition into EVs, those who can secure battery supply from Tesla will likely be the ones that will survive what could very well be a painful and costly move towards sustainability.
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Tesla FSD’s newest model is coming, and it sounds like ‘the last big piece of the puzzle’
“There’s a model that’s an order of magnitude larger that will be deployed in January or February 2026.”
Tesla Full Self-Driving’s newest model is coming very soon, and from what it sounds like, it could be “the last big piece of the puzzle,” as CEO Elon Musk said in late November.
During the xAI Hackathon on Tuesday, Musk was available for a Q&A session, where he revealed some details about Robotaxi and Tesla’s plans for removing Robotaxi Safety Monitors, and some information on a future FSD model.
While he said Full Self-Driving’s unsupervised capability is “pretty much solved,” and confirmed it will remove Safety Monitors in the next three weeks, questions about the company’s ability to give this FSD version to current owners came to mind.
Musk said a new FSD model is coming in about a month or two that will be an order-of-magnitude larger and will include more reasoning and reinforcement learning.
He said:
“There’s a model that’s an order of magnitude larger that will be deployed in January or February 2026. We’re gonna add a lot of reasoning and RL (reinforcement learning). To get to serious scale, Tesla will probably need to build a giant chip fab. To have a few hundred gigawatts of AI chips per year, I don’t see that capability coming online fast enough, so we will probably have to build a fab.”
NEWS: Elon Musk says FSD Unsupervised is “pretty much solved at this point” and that @Tesla will be launching Robotaxis with no safety monitors in about 3 weeks in Austin, Texas. He also teased a new FSD model is coming in about 1-2 months.
“We’re just going through validation… https://t.co/Msne72cgMB pic.twitter.com/i3wfKX3Z0r
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) December 10, 2025
It rings back to late November when Musk said that v14.3 “is where the last big piece of the puzzle finally lands.”
With the advancements made through Full Self-Driving v14 and v14.2, there seems to be a greater confidence in solving self-driving completely. Musk has also personally said that driver monitoring has been more relaxed, and looking at your phone won’t prompt as many alerts in the latest v14.2.1.
This is another indication that Tesla is getting closer to allowing people to take their eyes off the road completely.
Along with the Robotaxi program’s success, there is evidence that Tesla could be close to solving FSD. However, it is not perfect. We’ve had our own complaints with FSD, and although we feel it is the best ADAS on the market, it is not, in its current form, able to perform everything needed on roads.
But it is close.
That’s why there is some legitimate belief that Tesla could be releasing a version capable of no supervision in the coming months.
All we can say is, we’ll see.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX IPO is coming, CEO Elon Musk confirms
However, it appears Musk is ready for SpaceX to go public, as Ars Technica Senior Space Editor Eric Berger wrote an op-ed that indicated he thought SpaceX would go public soon. Musk replied, basically confirming it.
Elon Musk confirmed through a post on X that a SpaceX initial public offering (IPO) is on the way after hinting at it several times earlier this year.
It also comes one day after Bloomberg reported that SpaceX was aiming for a valuation of $1.5 trillion, adding that it wanted to raise $30 billion.
Musk has been transparent for most of the year that he wanted to try to figure out a way to get Tesla shareholders to invest in SpaceX, giving them access to the stock.
He has also recognized the issues of having a public stock, like litigation exposure, quarterly reporting pressures, and other inconveniences.
However, it appears Musk is ready for SpaceX to go public, as Ars Technica Senior Space Editor Eric Berger wrote an op-ed that indicated he thought SpaceX would go public soon.
Musk replied, basically confirming it:
As usual, Eric is accurate
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2025
Berger believes the IPO would help support the need for $30 billion or more in capital needed to fund AI integration projects, such as space-based data centers and lunar satellite factories. Musk confirmed recently that SpaceX “will be doing” data centers in orbit.
AI appears to be a “key part” of SpaceX getting to Musk, Berger also wrote. When writing about whether or not Optimus is a viable project and product for the company, he says that none of that matters. Musk thinks it is, and that’s all that matters.
It seems like Musk has certainly mulled something this big for a very long time, and the idea of taking SpaceX public is not just likely; it is necessary for the company to get to Mars.
The details of when SpaceX will finally hit that public status are not known. Many of the reports that came out over the past few days indicate it would happen in 2026, so sooner rather than later.
But there are a lot of things on Musk’s plate early next year, especially with Cybercab production, the potential launch of Unsupervised Full Self-Driving, and the Roadster unveiling, all planned for Q1.
Tesla has added the 15th automaker to the growing list of companies whose EVs can utilize the Supercharger Network this year, as BMW is the latest company to gain access to the largest charging infrastructure in the world.
BMW became the 15th company in 2025 to gain Tesla Supercharger access, after the company confirmed to its EV owners that they could use any of the more than 25,000 Supercharging stalls in North America.
Welcome @BMW owners.
Download the Tesla app to charge → https://t.co/vnu0NHA7Ab
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) December 10, 2025
Newer BMW all-electric cars, like the i4, i5, i7, and iX, are able to utilize Tesla’s V3 and V4 Superchargers. These are the exact model years, via the BMW Blog:
- i4: 2022-2026 model years
- i5: 2024-2025 model years
- 2026 i5 (eDrive40 and xDrive40) after software update in Spring 2026
- i7: 2023-2026 model years
- iX: 2022-2025 model years
- 2026 iX (all versions) after software update in Spring 2026
With the expansion of the companies that gained access in 2025 to the Tesla Supercharger Network, a vast majority of non-Tesla EVs are able to use the charging stalls to gain range in their cars.
So far in 2025, Tesla has enabled Supercharger access to:
- Audi
- BMW
- Genesis
- Honda
- Hyundai
- Jaguar Land Rover
- Kia
- Lucid
- Mercedes-Benz
- Nissan
- Polestar
- Subaru
- Toyota
- Volkswagen
- Volvo
Drivers with BMW EVs who wish to charge at Tesla Superchargers must use an NACS-to-CCS1 adapter. In Q2 2026, BMW plans to release its official adapter, but there are third-party options available in the meantime.
They will also have to use the Tesla App to enable Supercharging access to determine rates and availability. It is a relatively seamless process.
Tesla FSD’s newest model is coming, and it sounds like ‘the last big piece of the puzzle’
SpaceX IPO is coming, CEO Elon Musk confirms
