Who Are Tesla's Main Suppliers? (2024)

FAQs

Who supplies Tesla their materials? ›

CATL is the world's largest electric vehicle battery maker and supplier to the likes of Tesla and Ford.

If you've ever wondered “Who makes Tesla batteries?”, the answer is chiefly Panasonic, although CATL is a key Tesla car battery manufacturer, due to the fact the two companies have agreed to produce lithium-ion batteries together at Tesla's second “battery megafactory” at Giga Shanghai.

Supply Chain strategy of Tesla

Tesla's products use thousands of purchased parts that are sourced from hundreds of suppliers across the world. Tesla has developed close relationships with vendors of critical parts such as battery cells, electronics, and complex vehicle assemblies.

Redwood Materials, a battery recycling company founded and led by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, will begin its production of copper foil his year.

As Tesla continues to send out the latest FSD Beta, 10.69. 3.1, the next generation of Tesla's FSD computer will be using chips manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC).

Tesla procures about 1,600 unique silicon parts from 43 semiconductor companies and finding new uses for chips has allowed the company to save costs and maximize production, Baglino said.

Leading lithium producing countries worldwide 2022

In 2022, Australia was the world leader in terms of lithium mine production, with an estimated output of 61,000 metric tons. Chile and China ranked second and third, with lithium production totaling 39,000 and 19,000 metric tons, respectively.

At the end of 2021, Tesla inked a fresh three year lithium supply deal with top lithium producer Ganfeng Lithium (OTC Pink:GNENF,SZSE:002460). The Chinese company will provide products to Tesla for three years starting from 2022.

According to a report by Friends of the Earth (FoE), lithium extraction inevitably harms the soil and causes air contamination. As demand rises, the mining impacts are “increasingly affecting communities where this harmful extraction takes place, jeopardising their access to water,” says the report.

China has become a key manufacturing center for Austin, Texas-based Tesla, with the Shanghai factory churning out over 710,000 cars in 2022, or around 52 percent of the company's worldwide output.

Where does Tesla get most of its money? ›

Key Takeaways. Tesla makes, sells, and services all-electric vehicles in the U.S., Europe, and China. It also sells energy generation products. The company gets the vast majority of its revenue and all of its profits from automotive sales.

In short, Tesla takes complete ownership of the supply chain by carefully picking and choosing between conventional manufacturing practices and custom designing others that are unique to its own product, in addition to ensuring good chemistry with its suppliers.

TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited, is one of the world's largest semiconductor companies. Now Tesla is reportedly moving forward with TSMC and has started placing large orders for its next-gen self-driving chip, according to reports coming out of China and Taiwan (translated from Chinese):

SCL currently provides steel to the Fremont, California Tesla factory, and this new development nearly doubles the current steel shipment amount from Sumitomo to Tesla.

Tesla buys aluminum from Rusal to use it for casting parts at its Giga Berlin factory, the report said, adding that there was no indication the metal was used in U.S. production.

#1 Infineon Technologies AG (Germany)

Infineon Technologies is a German semiconductor manufacturer that makes chips for a number of automotive firms.

Elon Musk's Tesla, which has a factory in Shanghai, sold a record number of China-made cars in December and its brand remains strong despite facing one of its worst public relations crises in the country last year. The U.S. electric vehicle maker does not use Nvidia chips.

TSMC manufactures all of the chips that are used in Apple's iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other devices. At the current time, chips are manufactured primarily in Taiwan, but TSMC is building two factories in Arizona as Apple seeks to move more manufacturing to the United States.

1. Intel Corporation (Leading Semiconductor Company in USA) Intel is world leader in silicon innovation develops processor technologies and supports global initiatives.

The carmakers want to go electric all at once and this started creating problems. Raw materials like lithium, nickel, and cobalt became harder to source, which led to surging prices.

Does Tesla buy chips from Taiwan? ›

Led by Elon Musk, Tesla (TSLA) reportedly picked Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) over Samsung (OTCPK:SSNLF) for the order, with the chips slated to be used in future self-driving systems, Digitimes Asia reported. The chips are likely to be made at Taiwan Semiconductor's (TSM) Arizona plant, scheduled to open in 2024.

Chile has the largest lithium reserves worldwide by a large margin. Australia comes in second, with reserves estimated at 6.2 million metric tons in 2022. Mineral reserves are defined as those minerals that were extractable or producible at the time of estimate. Australia was the top country in terms of.

An aerial view of the Silver Peak Lithium Mine in Silver Peak, Nevada. The facility is the U.S.' lone lithium producer. Much of that demand comes from the booming global EV market, with sales reaching historic levels last year and on track to do so again in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency.

LFP: Lithium-iron-phosphate, aka “the new guy”

Tesla announced in fall 2021 that they would be switching to LFP batteries in all standard range Model 3 and Model Ys. By Q1 of 2022, half of the vehicles delivered worldwide were equipped with these new batteries.

TAIPEI-- Taiwan-based Simplo Technology is one of the world's top lithium-ion battery manufacturers. It holds the largest share globally for laptop batteries, supplying over 20%.

Lithium mining does have an environmental impact, but it is no worse than oil drilling. This is especially true when you consider the carbon emissions produced from petroleum products during their usage, as compared to lithium-ion batteries that have little to no GHG emissions during their use.

Based on what is currently known, fracking is a much more dangerous process than lithium mining, but unfortunately, both seem to be essential to the world today. Many countries, companies, industries, and individuals are dependent on oil and natural gas.

The demand for lithium for EV batteries is driving a mining boom in an arid Andes region of Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia, home to half the world's reserves. Hydrologists are warning the mines could drain vital ecosystems and deprive Indigenous communities of precious water.

Who is Tesla's biggest competitor in China? ›

BYD, Tesla's main competitor in China, and other Chinese manufacturers posted huge sales growth towards the end of last year, while Tesla's numbers slumped more than 40% in December.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the carmaker would not ship vehicles built in China at the company's Shanghai plant to North America.

According to Morgan Stanley, "Tesla generates as much as one-half of its profitability from the Chinese market, arguably making the stock a derivative of a Chinese tech stock." In other words, Tesla is very much dependent on China, not only for growth, but for economic survival.

But according to Tesla's own numbers, they delivered 1.31 million units in 2022, including Tesla Model S and Model X... And Model Y is on a very clear path to becoming the number-one-selling vehicle in the world this year. All the while, every other single best-selling vehicle finds itself down year-over-year.

The Tesla Model Y was the world's most popular plug-in electric vehicle with worldwide unit sales of roughly 771,300 in 2022. That year, deliveries of Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y have surpassed 1.2 million, which was a year-over-year increase of 36.77 percent for Tesla's best-selling models.

The bargaining power of suppliers is a moderate force in Tesla Porter's five forces. Tesla relies on suppliers for its smooth supply lines. Hence, suppliers influence the business, and the forces involved in this are; Forward integration is a moderate force.

We speak with Michael Meeth, who is a Global Supply Chain Manager at Tesla.

Tesla has secured a stable supply system by signing long-term supply contracts with multiple companies for lithium, nickel, and cobalt minerals, the three major raw materials for batteries.

Cruise isn't the first car company to use, then dump, Nvidia. Three years ago, Tesla Inc. announced it was going it alone to develop a chip for its full-self driving (FSD) computer.

What company makes the chips for electric cars? ›

Wolfspeed, which produces chips that make electric vehicles considerably more efficient, said Friday it has embarked on a plan to build a new facility in North Carolina that will enable a 10-fold increase in the company's manufacturing capacity.

Bosch integrates Tesla brand and access to protected vehicle data from Ford and Porsche into the Esitronic diagnostic software.

Tesla, Inc. has taken a large step forward to secure graphite by signing an agreement with Syrah Resources Limited, an Australian company with a large mining facility in Mozambique.

Indonesian nickel

Rather than setting up a local facility, Tesla is working with local Indonesian processors to source its nickel products.

A total of twelve companies are included in the table, including Vale, which is listed as a supplier of nickel mined from Canada from an integrated mine site and refiner. Following Tesla's disclosure, Vale went public with the deal as well in a short statement dated May 6.

Tesla offers 425-watt, all-black, seamless, anodized aluminum, monocrystalline solar panels from Q CELLS by Hanwha.

To date, Elon Musk's electric vehicle company has mostly relied on Panasonic and other vendors including CATL in China, for battery cells that go into their cars' high-voltage battery packs, and into the company's energy storage systems for home, commercial and grid-scale installations.

To assemble its cars, Tesla sources parts from a range of Tesla suppliers. Some suppliers provide ordinary car parts, others provide electric vehicle parts. Still, others provide steel, industrial products, and minerals. The transition to EVs is moving at a rapid pace and EV suppliers have room to grow.

In 2012, the first Model S rolled off the assembly line at our factory in Fremont, California. Today, we have the capacity to manufacture more than a million vehicles every year, in addition to energy products, battery cells and more.

Where does Tesla get its aluminum from? ›

Tesla has bought aluminum from Russian company Rusal since 2020, showing how war complicates supply chain. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has vocally supported Ukraine since Russia began its brutal invasion. But Tesla, like most other large automakers, has ties to at least one Russian supplier.

At the end of 2021, Tesla inked a fresh three year lithium supply deal with top lithium producer Ganfeng Lithium (OTC Pink:GNENF,SZSE:002460). The Chinese company will provide products to Tesla for three years starting from 2022.

Tesla is reportedly considering buying Brazil-based lithium miner Sigma Lithium, which is currently valued at $3 billion.

The automaker wrote: Cobalt, lithium and nickel are also “minerals” – in that they are raw materials that are produced through different methods of mining around the world, often concentrated in countries that face socio-economic and environmental challenges.

As a Silicon Valley born company, Tesla has never outsourced their software. They have instead developed a proprietary self-driving software that is improved by collecting data from Tesla's network of over one million beta testers.

Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI), Tesla's steel supplier for the Cybertruck's exoskeleton, is expected to start initial operations in its Sinton, Texas facility next month.

Tesla's steel supplier, Steel Dynamics, recently opened a new plant in Sinton, Texas. According to General Manager Dennis Black, the plant will use 90% recycled scrap metal. The plant is expected to supply Tesla with stainless steel for the Cybertruck. In recent days, Tesla has been hyping the Cybertruck in a big way.