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Tesla battery supplier LG Chem to double production capacity: report
Tesla battery supplier LG Chem will double its cell production capacity over the next year to keep up with the growing demand for Tesla’s electric vehicles in China, a new report says.
An exclusive report from Reuters states that sources familiar with the matter have talked about strategies moving forward to keep up with increasingly popular all-electric vehicles from Tesla. LG Chem, who supplies cells to Tesla in Shanghai for the production of the Model 3 sedan, stated that it would also ship its increased output from China and Korea to Tesla production facilities in the United States and Germany once they are completed. Tesla currently has a new production facility under construction in Austin, Texas, and in Brandenburg, Germany. Reuters indicated that two people who are familiar with the matter have seen LG Chem signal an increased role in the supply chain of Tesla as it continues to grow its lead in the EV production sector.
Tesla is LG Chem’s primary customer, and the plan to double its cell production capacity comes as Tesla begins to expand its global production processes aggressively. Tesla has been manufacturing vehicles in Shanghai for around a year and announced its intentions to build a European production facility around 13 months ago. Rumors also speculate that another factory could be on the way within the next few years, and India could be the location, but nothing has been confirmed.
LG Chem to double China battery capacity to meet Tesla demand | Reuters $TSLA
— David Tayar (@davidtayar5) December 1, 2020
LG Chem has already added additional production lines to increase the possible production capacity in South Korea this year. The main purpose of the expansion was to meet demand from Tesla’s U.S. plants, the two sources told Reuters. “Tesla simply doesn’t have enough battery cells, so LG Chem is going to more than double China outputs,” the person said.
Tesla sources batteries from Panasonic, LG Chem, and CATL, and CEO Elon Musk stated at the company’s Battery Day event in September that it plans to begin making its own 4680 cells that will be less expensive and more efficient. However, the company will continue to source batteries from suppliers for the time being, but could eventually become a battery supplier on its own as it has plans to open several battery cell production facilities across the globe.
Tesla China signs contract with LG Chem for Model Y production
To keep up with global demand, Tesla will have to source batteries from third-party sources for the time being, and an LG Chem spokesperson said that there is an increased demand for cells. However, he could not elaborate on who was the cause of the expansion in cell production capacity.
“We’re continuing to expand capacity for cylindrical battery cells in response to growing demand from automakers, but we can’t comment on specific customers,” an LG Chem spokesman told Reuters.
LG Chem plans to invest $500 million over the next year to raise the annual production of 2170 cells by 8 GWh. The 2170 cells are used in the Model 3 and Model Y, Tesla’s two mass-market vehicles. Currently, eight production lines are operational at the Nanjing, China plant that LG Chem manufactures its batteries, but it plans to expand its available lines to seventeen.
Tesla currently only manufactures the Model 3 at its Chinese production facility, but it plans to begin building the Model Y within the next few months. Because of the overwhelming demand for both the Model 3 and Model Y, the move to expand 2170 cell capacity is a no-brainer, especially considering the Government-offered subsidies that China provides for clean energy vehicles.
The person who spoke with Reuters also indicated that LG Chem’s Chinese factory would initially supply battery cells for Tesla’s Giga Berlin production facility in Germany when it begins production in Summer 2021.
For years, there have been images and videos across social media platforms that have reminded me of when I was a 15-year-old kid teased by “Xbox 720” videos on YouTube. These videos are of the supposed “Tesla Phone” that Elon Musk was secretly developing in between leading Tesla with its electric cars and SpaceX with its reusable rockets.
Would you buy a Tesla phone ? pic.twitter.com/aaTwvvIJit
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 6, 2023
Although Musk has put those rumors to bed several times, it was never completely out of the realm that he could get involved in cell phones in some capacity. Think outside the box and more macro-level, though. Instead of reinventing the computer, Musk reinvented connectivity by developing Starlink with SpaceX.
It could be something similar, TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams said in a note last week, where he hinted SpaceX could be gathering some steam to acquire T-Mobile.
Williams said it would be the “clear choice” for SpaceX if it decided to go through with a network acquisition. He also suggested AT&T.
The move would be possible through selling more of its own stock, which would help SpaceX raise the money to purchase T-Mobile, which would cost roughly $300 billion. It could be one of the moves SpaceX makes post-IPO in terms of an acquisition: it already acquired Cursor AI for $60 billion.
Other analysts, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, believe SpaceX and Tesla will eventually merge into one anyway, and that conglomeration could come as soon as this year, some have said.
The implications of SpaceX purchasing T-Mobile are massive. A combined entity would create a truly ubiquitous network: T-Mobile’s terrestrial 5G towers and Starlink’s growing constellation of Direct-to-Cell satellites. This would essentially eliminate dead zones across the U.S. and potentially globally.
SpaceX would instantly become a full-scale facilities-based carrier with satellite differentiation; a huge advantage. This would pressure AT&T and Verizon heavily.
There are also concerns like a potential reduction in long-term competition, and of course, a deal of that size would face intense scrutiny from government agencies.
The strategic fit is compelling due to the existing Starlink–T-Mobile partnership and complementary technologies (space + terrestrial). It could create a dominant integrated communications player. However, the regulatory, financial, and execution hurdles are enormous — this remains highly speculative with no indication SpaceX is actively pursuing it right now.
Tesla revealed a major new Cybercab detail in a guide it released for First Responders, showing new territory in its beliefs and intentions for the ride-hailing-focused vehicle that entered production in April.
The First Responders Guide is released to give fire departments, paramedics, and other emergency personnel the proper guidance on what to do in the event of an accident, entrapment, or other situation that would require immediate attention.
On one of the pages of the First Responders Guide, Tesla revealed a stark detail about the Cybercab, which could help personnel enter the vehicle more easily in case of an emergency.
Tesla Cybercab has one important piece that AI4 cars might need for FSD
It shows Tesla has no intention of releasing any Cybercab units that were initially proposed for ride-hailing services for the general public with any manual controls, meaning a steering wheel or pedals:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or acceleration and brake pedals.”
New official Cybercab documentation from Tesla:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or… https://t.co/P6ut1mZyzr pic.twitter.com/yq6skl9s2J
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 27, 2026
This is a major development for those who continue to believe Tesla planned to release the Cybercab with any sort of manual controls so that passengers could take over if needed. However, when Tesla started manufacturing production versions of the Cybercab in Giga Texas earlier this year, they were spotted without a steering wheel or pedals.
It essentially confirms the company has no intentions of bringing manual controls to the car’s production versions. Some have argued that the likelihood of Tesla having something
There still are some Cybercab units out there with a steering wheel and pedals, and as Tesla said, these cars are engineering or test vehicles, which have Safety Monitors on board to help the car out of a precarious situation or emergency.
Tesla released the Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite to owners of Hardware 3 or AI3 vehicles today, adding several new features to the vehicles that were once believed to be capable of unsupervised self-driving.
Now, Tesla has released this modified suite to older Tesla vehicles, adding plenty of new features and capabilities.
Here are the full release notes for the suite:
- Distilled the intelligence from HW4 V14 into HW3. This allows HW3 to directly learn how to handle scenarios using HW4 V14 as a guide. This process unlocks the improvements that have been made to HW4 including Reinforcement Learning (RL) and offline models for HW3.
- Improved both proactive and reactive responsiveness across a wide variety of categories including navigation handling, merges and forks, pedestrian interactions, traffic lights, and vehicle cut-in scenarios.
- Improved general comfort in nominal scenarios through fewer false slowdowns, smoother steering and more consistent lane centering.
- Introduced parking, unparking, and reversing capabilities.
- Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, or at the Curbside.
- Speed Profiles are now available at all times, to further customize driving style preference.
These improvements, according to Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, help distill the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of AI3.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ for older cars finally gets released
He added:
“It includes destination options and speed profiles on city roads, but more importantly significantly improved safety. We hope you’ll enjoy it, once the build ships wide.”
FSD v14 Lite is now rolling out to AI3 early-access customers. Based on the feedback, will rollout to more customers over the next few weeks.
This build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute config of AI3. It includes destination…
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 29, 2026
Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.
Tesla Phone? Not quite, but close: analyst
Tesla reveals huge Cybercab detail in new guide for First Responders
