CATL will supply M3P batteries to Tesla in the fourth quarter for use on the Model Y produced by Giga Shanghai. The battery has a capacity of 72 kWh and will be available early next year.
The M3P CATL battery that will be supplied to Tesla uses lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP). The material is supplied by Shenzhen Dynanonic Co, which plans to produce 110,000 tons of LMFP material in the second half of this year.
The cathode used by the battery is no longer made of lithium iron phosphate, but of lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP). This makes for a higher energy density compared to LFP cells.
Tesla is also developing its own LMFP battery. However, due to the long development cycle, the automaker decided to initially source the battery from an external supplier. Tesla is CATL’s largest single customer.
The M3P CATL battery is already in mass production and will be put into use next year, said the electric battery giant’s chief scientist Wu Kai in a presentation at the 2022 World EV & ES Batteries Conference in Yibin, southwest China’s Sichuan province, on July 22.
The M3P battery was developed based on a new material system that has a higher energy density than LFP batteries and lower cost than ternary batteries, Wu said.
The M3P battery will primarily target markets with a range of more than 700 kilometers, according to Wu.
