Sources say Tesla plans to open a new battery factory in Nevada, equipped with CATL equipment

On February 1, Bloomberg reported that Tesla is planning to expand its battery production project in Nevada and open a small factory using idle equipment from CATL. People familiar with the matter said Tesla is working hard to increase production of MEGAPACK batteries.

Tesla reportedly plans to purchase some equipment from CATL and install it in Sparks. They said Tesla will have 100% control of the factory and fully bear its construction costs, and CATL personnel will not be involved except to help debug equipment.

As the world's largest power battery manufacturer, CATL has been supplying Tesla since July 2020; Tesla also became CATL's largest customer for the first time in 2021, purchasing a total of 13 billion yuan of lithium batteries that year. Accounting for 10% of CATL’s total revenue.

CATL's 2022 annual report shows that Tesla has become the company's largest customer for two consecutive years. CATL's lithium battery sales revenue from Tesla that year was 38 billion yuan, accounting for 11.59% of total revenue.

CATL's 2023 annual performance forecast shows that the net profit in 2023 is expected to be 42.5 billion yuan-45.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 38.31%-48.07%.

Tesla’s revenue in the fourth quarter was US$25.17 billion, with adjusted earnings per share of US$0.71, gross profit margin of 17.6%, free cash flow of US$2.06 billion, and net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders of US$7.928 billion, a year-on-year increase of 115%; According to US GAAP, net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders was US$2.485 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 39%.

Tesla will deliver 1.808 million vehicles in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 38%; of which delivery volume in the fourth quarter was a record 484,500 vehicles. This means the company's annualized delivery growth over the past five years has been 127%.

In terms of energy storage business, Tesla's total installed capacity in 2023 will be 14.7 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 125%. Profits from the energy generation and storage business will almost quadruple in 2023, and Tesla expects energy storage installations to continue to grow in the coming year.