Tesla Car Battery Made By LG From China Allegedly Vulnerable To Damage

JAKARTA A European electric vehicle specialist workshop, EV Clinic, warns that LG Energy Solution (LGES)-made battery packages from China have problems. The batteries were installed in a number of Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y.

Reporting from the EV Arena, Tuesday, December 2, it was stated that the battery was prone to massive failures and a much shorter life period than the battery made by Panasonic from the United States.

According to data released by EV Clinic, the NMC811 battery cell, the Nickel Manganese Cobalt, produced at the LGES plant in Nanjing, China, shows a catatropic failure rate. The comparison is striking: the US-based NCA Panasonic battery pack is claimed to last up to about 400,000 kilometers before cells start to break.

On the other hand, the LG NCM811 package is often near the end of its life worth living in the range of 240,000 kilometers. Even more dangerous, EV Clinic says that more than 90 percent of the LG battery cases they check do not allow it to be repaired by replacing just one cell.

The problem is not just one cell, but even damage in many cell modules. Technically, LG battery cells show very high internal resistance.

In comparison, healthy Panasonic cells have resistances of about 10 milli-ohm, while the cells of one of the damaged LG packages can reach up to 28 milli-ohm of this value and even the same as the initial resistance in the new LG cells.

When technicians open failed battery packs, modules with 46 cells are often found where 15 cells have resistances above 100 milli-ohm, and the remaining 30 cells remain above 50 milli-ohm. Since most cells have weakened, changing one module alone is considered ineffective, other cells will most likely fail in the near future, triggering domino effects.

Repair costs also swelled until EV Clinic had to charge a feasibility fee just to check whether repairs were possible. The workshop even reported losses of more than 20,000 euros per month due to batteries deemed dead.

As a recommendation, EV Clinic advises Tesla owners with failed LG battery packages to search for used Panasonic packages to replace them, or directly contact Tesla for full replacement.

According to reports, most of the LG batteries from China were distributed to Tesla vehicles sold in Europe and parts of Asia. With this warning from EV Clinic, serious questions arise regarding the sustainability of Tesla's battery supply strategy, particularly regarding the significant quality difference between batteries from different suppliers.