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Tesla Could Be Hogging Batteries and Causing a Global Shortage, Says Report (gizmodo.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the supply-and-demand dept.

According to a report from the Korea news outlet ETNews, Tesla's solution to fixing a manufacturing bottleneck responsible for a $619 million loss last quarter could be causing a global battery shortage. Panasonic reportedly gave most of its cache of batteries in Japan to Tesla so that the automaker and Gigafactory 1 energy-storage company could keep up with its ambitious production schedule. Gizmodo reports: In early October, Tesla struggled with a "production bottleneck," but by the end of the month, Panasonic stated it would increase battery output at the Gigafactory, now that it understood the issues that led to the bottleneck and could automate some of the processes that had been done by hand. But this likely did not help Tesla fix any immediate shortage issues. ETNews claims that Panasonic is coping with the shortage by shipping batteries in from Japan. And many Japanese companies in need of cylinder batteries have turned to other suppliers like LG, Murata, and Samsung -- but those companies have not been able to meet the demands. Reportedly, companies that had contracts before 2017 aren't affected by the shortage, but several other manufacturers have not been able to place orders for batteries, and won't be able to order more batteries until the middle of next year.

9 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. Business 101 by fluffernutter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Fuck everyone else. It's just good business.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    1. Re:Business 101 by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Fuck everyone else. It's just good business.

      As we shift from fossil fuels to batteries, we will have to ramp up production. Tesla is causing that to happen NOW, rather than in the future when it could be even more disruptive. This is a Good Thing. We need to produce more lithium, and more cobalt. We need to make more batteries, and make them cheaper and more efficiently. By bringing the inevitable supply problems forward, innovators will be incentivized to find solutions.

    2. Re: Business 101 by MachineShedFred · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Monopolistic? Don't be an idiot. It's basic supply and demand. And, Tesla has a monopoly on exactly nothing, except maybe a trade secret on generating fanboy hype. Neither does Panasonic.

      There is simply not enough battery manufacturing to meet the current demand. So Tesla is locking up the supply they need by working with their manufacturing partner in a very legal and straightforward way that hundreds of businesses have done to obtain the materials they need, for basically all of history. And guess what? If demand is greater than supply, some other company can either outbid Tesla for the supply, or wait for more manufacturing to be built to increase the available supply. Just like any other product or material in any other market, ever.

      Oh, I forgot - we are talking about Tesla, so OMG evil! Bad! Almost as bad as Apple, because reasons!

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
  2. So? by GerryGilmore · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let's see: company (Tesla) has more need for materials furnished by a partner company(Panasonic), so orders more and partner company supplies the extra materials. Other companies WITHOUT existing supply contracts whine about being unable to buy batteries from partner company. Isn't this at some level how basic capitalism works? It's not like there aren't other battery suppliers and - yes! - demand is skyrocketing. Welcome to the real world.

  3. Causing? by LordKronos · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wait, so the claim is that Tesla could be CAUSING a shortage?

    How are they causing a shortage? By buying up all the batteries they can get.
    Why are they buying up batteries? To eliminate their manufacturing problems.
    What were the manufacturing problems they were having? They couldn't get enough batteries.

    Oh yeah, that makes total sense. It's not a battery shortage causing Tesla to buy up batteries....it's Tesla buying up batteries that is causing a shortage.

  4. Re:This sucks! by viperidaenz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But the truth wouldn't generate a click bait headline

  5. Re: Environmental impact of this manufacturing by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Daily Mail caring about the environment?

    They don't care. The whole point of the article is to promote environmental nihilism and apathy. If 16 ships pollute more than a billion cars, and wind turbines kill birds, and bicyclists run over endangered insects, then clearly everything is equally bad and nothing matters and readers can continue to drive their SUVs guilt free.

  6. Re:Tesla's Cobalt Conundrum by Aighearach · · Score: 3, Insightful

    According to this Canadian mining company about to start operation of a primary cobalt mine in the US, 58% of world cobalt production was from DR Congo in 2015.

    http://www.ecobalt.com/assets/...

    Before offering corrections, it is important to understand what the words mean within their context. In the context of industrial supply, where the mines are is what they are talking about when discussing the locations of a resource.

    For example, it doesn't prove them wrong to point out that there is a lot of cobalt on Venus.

  7. Re: Elon Musk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Yeah, buying batteries available on the open market, gassing 6 million Jews and starting a war that killed over 50 million other people... basically the same thing.

    FYI you are a moron.