Elon Musk has hinted or almost confirmed that Tesla is starting to produce its own batteries, using newly acquired technology from Maxwell, and it may even mine minerals to produce batteries.

　　It's sometimes easy to think that Tesla already produces its own batteries because it claims to have the largest battery factory in the world, but that's not actually the case.

　　In the Gigafactory 1 factory jointly owned by Tesla and Panasonic in Nevada, Panasonic has a battery production line at the factory. Tesla purchases these cells from Japanese suppliers in order to produce battery modules and battery packs in other parts of the same factory.

　　At Tesla’s 2019 shareholder meeting, the CEO emphasized the fact that Tesla product launches are currently limited by the scale of battery production. "As we scale up battery production, we have to look further into the supply chain and potentially into the mining industry... I don't know. At least we will do it bit by bit and do what we can so that we can move as quickly as possible Expansion. Tesla is becoming more involved in supply chain production by striking deals directly with mining companies, and when it comes to battery production, he said he doesn't want too many companies involved in the production side of the supply chain.

　　Straubel, who was Tesla's chief battery expert, added, "We need a solution for mass production of batteries. However, he did not directly say that he would take over battery production, nor would he rely on Panasonic. Tesla's technical deputy President Drew Baglino added that they want to be "the masters of their own destiny" on this issue.

　　The CEO also briefly mentioned the recent integration of battery technology acquired from Maxwell: "We think this is really quite strategic, it is a very important technology that has a significant impact on battery component production and also reduces battery component scale. Cost and capital required for production.

　　However, he did not want to comment on this. More information will be announced at Tesla’s Battery and Powertrain Investor Day planned for the end of this year.

　　The possibility of Tesla entering the battery production industry is very high.

　　Musk didn't directly say he would make his own batteries, but they dropped so many hints that they all confirmed some of his points. The biggest one was when he listed the two most important things: batteries and fully autonomous driving.

　　Tesla has already done it successfully, and it makes perfect sense to build another one.

　　While Musk talked about not letting others in for now, Straubel talked about a "large-scale solution for battery production." He was talking about the production of battery components rather than the production of batteries. This series of comments from Elon, Straubel, and Drew is very fishy, and when Drew said they "learned a lot from their partners" and now they "have a solution," Straubel went with Looking at him with a strange nervous smile. To me, that smile meant "no, don't tell", because I didn't want him to say that Tesla would make its own battery components.

　　If we consider Elon’s rhetoric about Maxwell, it’s clear that Tesla is trying to leverage its experience to work with Panasonic and start producing its own battery components with technology acquired from Maxwell. This will be a major improvement. Tesla is already the most relevant automaker in terms of battery production, and if their technology is as good as it sounds, this will take their lead to a whole new level.

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