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I was reading through Steve’s article on CATL’s fascinating new move into producing EV platforms and CATL founder Robin Zeng’s take on solid-state batteries. Then, way down at the bottom, I got to Zeng’s comments about discussions with Elon Musk. Holy cow — there were some jaw droppers there!
I’m not going to say Steve buried the lede, because the CATL plan he highlighted really is the bigger news. That said, he did bury a pretty saucy story!
In case you missed the comments amidst that larger piece about CATL batteries and innovation, here’s a list of eye-popping comments Zeng made about Musk, who the reporting indicates Zeng is in regular contact with:
Zeng told Musk the 4680 battery “is going to fail and never be successful. We had a very big debate, and I showed him. He was silent.”
“He doesn’t know how to make a battery. It’s about electrochemistry. He’s good for the chips, the software, the hardware, the mechanical things.”
“I talked to him,” Zeng said. “Maybe something needs five years, but he says two years. I definitely asked him why. He told me he wanted to push people. He probably himself thinks it needs five years, but if you believe him when he says two years, you will be in big trouble.”
First of all, that’s pretty wild to just go out there and say publicly that a competitor and top customer’s approach to a core product is essentially stupid, and will “never be successful.” And then indicating that Musk didn’t have a response, and stayed silent? That’s like street basketball trash talk.
But he went further. Zeng claims Musk doesn’t even know the basics of batteries — doesn’t know about electrochemistry. This would all be sacrilegious to Musk fans, and it’s like saying Musk doesn’t know his ABCs. He does give a nod to Musk’s expertise on four other matters — chips, the software, the hardware, the mechanical things. However, after a couple of decades in the battery business, it’s sort of scathing.
To close, he’s calling out Musk for essentially lying — to his staff about actual targets, which can be somewhat understandable with an aim, but Zeng doesn’t seem to really understand or agree with that approach; but also more broadly to the public.
It’s not a good look for Elon.
Now, as we’ve said before, Musk is now in a very tricky place. Trump has been anti-China, anti-China, anti-China; while Muks has always been careful to be complimentary about and toward Xi Jinping and China. About half of Tesla’s vehicle production takes place in China, and a huge chunk of the company’s sales. Musk can’t risk becoming a persona non grata. If he had something like his normal response to anyone critical of him, he’d be putting himself and Tesla at significant business risk. So, well, his luckiest scenario would be not finding out about Zeng’s interview. If he does find out about Zeng’s interview, well, he’s going to need to deploy much more self-restraint and humility than he’s used to.
Interesting times….
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