>Zeng said he had told Musk directly that his bet on a cylindrical battery, known as the 4680, “is going to fail and never be successful.”<p>The CATL founder, who has a PhD in physics, was also unimpressed with Musk’s electrochemistry knowledge when debating Tesla’s 4680 batteyr cell effort:<p>“We had a very big debate, and I showed him,” Zeng said. “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.”<p>I wish the headlines would not be so literal because he praised Elon on other things.
That's myopically complacent; 20 years ago some car makers probably said the same thing: bah, Musk doesn't know how to make cars. Now something like every other new car on North American roads is a Tesla.<p>That battery marker is probably toast.