US electric vehicle maker Tesla signed a high-nickel cathode supply deal with South Korean battery cathode material company L&F Co, according to reports. The deal is said to be worth KRW 3.83 trillion ($2.9 billion).
The Teslerati blog said L&F shared some details of the deal through a public filing on 28 February. In the disclosure, L&F said the contract period with Tesla would run from January to the end of 2025. The Tesla contract is about four times the company’s sales last year, it reported. It put turnover at KRW 970.8 billion.
L&F stated in its disclosure that the high-nickel cathode materials it will be providing are intended for use in the automotive and energy storage industries in the US and elsewhere.
The L&F share price reportedly jumped 19% following the news. The supplier noted that the unit sales price of its materials might change over the contract period depending on fluctuations in lithium prices.
Analysts said it is for a contract of 77,000 tons. Reports are that Tesla chose the NMC811 chemistry. This is different from what it is using for their vehicles from other suppliers: NCA from Panasonic, LFP from CATL and NMCA from LGES.
Image: L&F’s public filing. Source: Teslerati
