L&F Cuts Value of Tesla Battery Materials Deal as 4680 Plans Falter
South Korean battery materials maker L&F said on Monday that the value of its battery material supply agreement with Tesla has been sharply reduced, falling to just $7,386 from an earlier estimate of $2.9 billion. The company did not disclose the specific reasons behind the dramatic revision.
L&F announced in 2023 that it had signed a deal to supply high-nickel cathode materials to Tesla and its affiliates from January 2024 through December 2025. Industry sources and analysts previously said the agreement was intended to support Tesla’s in-house battery production, particularly its next-generation 4680 cells.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the 4680 battery plan in 2020, describing it as a breakthrough technology that would lower costs and enable the production of a fully autonomous electric vehicle priced around $25,000. However, progress has been slower than initially projected. As global demand for electric vehicles weakened and Tesla struggled to scale up production of the 4680 cells, the company required far less cathode material than originally expected, analysts said.
Tesla currently uses the 4680 batteries primarily in its Cybertruck, a model that has underperformed sales expectations despite Musk’s earlier forecasts of hundreds of thousands of units annually. Musk has also acknowledged that scaling up Tesla’s new dry electrode battery manufacturing process remains a significant technical challenge.
Market analysts link L&F’s reduced deal value to broader headwinds across the battery and EV sectors. Cho Hyun-ryul, a senior analyst at Samsung Securities, said issues with production yields for the 4680 batteries, combined with slowing EV demand growth, likely contributed to Tesla cutting back orders. He added that uncertainty is spreading across the battery industry as a whole.
The pressure is not limited to L&F. Several battery suppliers have reported order cancellations and the scaling back of joint ventures with major automakers such as General Motors and Ford Motor following the end of U.S. federal EV subsidies in September. South Korea’s battery sector has been particularly affected as automakers reassess electric vehicle strategies amid policy uncertainty and weakening demand.
