Chapter 1656 I can talk, I can be patriotic

the next day.

Tesla's Advanced Battery Research and Development Center in Palo Alto, California.

Musk walked heavily into the constant temperature and humidity battery testing room, with dark circles under his eyes and deep fatigue between his brows.

Since the Model 2015 battery crisis broke out, he has been suffering every day.

In just a few weeks, Tesla's stock price plummeted like an avalanche. Customer anger, media criticism, investor doubts, and the bottomless pit of potential recall and compensation costs weighed heavily on him, making it hard to breathe.

At this time, chief scientist Jeff Dahn was standing in front of two side-by-side battery test benches, recording the data on the instruments.

Hearing footsteps, he looked up and a smile appeared on his face.

"Jeff," Musk's voice was a little hoarse, "please tell me that you bring good news."

"I can't promise." Dahn put down his clipboard and shrugged, his movements a little stiff. "But compared to what we've been through in the past few weeks, it's at least... not that bad."

"That's fine." Musk nodded: "You say.

Dan pointed to the two test benches in front of him and said, "I recently collected some Chinese-made Co-C-hBN materials through various channels and managed to produce a battery pack. I ran a comparative test with our mass-produced product."

Musk's eyes immediately turned to the two test benches.

The two battery packs have similar structures, but their states are completely different.

The battery pack on platform No. 1 has a neat appearance, and various monitoring data are jumping steadily on the screen. The voltage, current and temperature curves are all in a healthy range.

The battery pack on platform No. 2 was obviously swollen and deformed. On the monitoring screen, the colored curves representing the voltages of different battery cells had already parted ways, like an out-of-control roller coaster track, and the temperature curve would occasionally soar into the dangerous red zone.

"So..." He saw the result almost immediately. "Number One uses the Co-C-hBN material produced in China?"

"Yes."

Daen nodded affirmatively, pointing to the complex cables connecting the two devices and the identical control console:

"The two battery packs differ only in the source of the electrode materials; everything else is identical—the same electrolyte formula, the same physical structure design, and the same packaging process provided by LG Chem. They even," he emphasized, "use the original BMS system from the Model 2015 when it was first released, without any power restrictions, to simulate the most demanding and unsafe operating environment."

After saying this, Dan signaled his assistant to call up the test log in the background and project it on the screen next to him.

"The test item is 200 complete high-current charge and discharge cycles. Pack 87 showed obvious voltage differentiation after the 132th cycle, and a local overheating alarm appeared at the nd cycle. As you can see, the current condition has been severely degraded and is close to failure."

Dan pointed to the steady stream of data nearby:

"As for pack No. 200, after 95 cycles, the voltage consistency of all cells remained at an excellent level, the temperature rise was controllable, and the capacity retention rate exceeded %. The performance... was much better than the control group."

Musk stared at the huge contrast between the data and the actual object, and his breathing became heavy.

LG Chem’s synthesis process and battery pack design may be flawed, and the BMS system does have blind spots, but the most core and fatal shortcoming is the electrode material itself!

Indeed, it's not that bad.

"In other words..." Musk turned to Dahn, "As long as we can find a solution to the material source and ensure that the electrode materials are qualified, then the existing battery pack design and BMS system are... completely usable?"

"Elon, I must emphasize that this is just the result of a comparative test." Dann maintained a scientist's rigor and tried to pour cold water on the matter. "A single experiment cannot constitute a rigorous scientific conclusion. Minor differences in material batches and production processes may affect the results."

At this point, he looked at the hope that was almost burning in Musk's eyes, and his tone softened a bit:

"However, judging by the current trends and performance gaps, the criticality of the material itself is undeniable. If we can obtain a stable, high-quality supply of Co-C-hBN material, the problem we face can be reduced from a 'systemic collapse' to a 'solvable supply chain and local optimization' problem."

"That's enough!" Musk waved his arms violently, as if to dispel the haze that had been hanging over his head these days. "Now is not the time to pursue perfect conclusions!"

He took two quick steps:

"After the second BMS system update, the Model 2015 stopped catching fire, but its performance is a joke... Charging is as slow as a snail, acceleration is as soft as cotton. The experience is worse than that of a gasoline car from ten years ago!"

"Users aren't fools. They won't spend nearly $100,000 on a crippled, defective product! If this continues, we won't even need a court summons. The loss of users and the collapse of our brand alone will put us into bankruptcy... In short, we must replace the battery pack with a qualified one as soon as possible..."

"..."

At this moment, the door of the testing room was gently pushed open.

Musk's special assistant, Ron Daniel, walked in quickly.

He had a look on his face that was a mixture of worry and a hint of odd excitement, and he was holding a tablet in his hands.

"Sorry to bother you." Daniel's voice was low but quick. "I've received some very interesting information from...some special business intelligence channels. It may have an impact on our current situation."

Musk's mind was full of "Materials! Materials!" and he turned around anxiously when he heard this:

"Has China responded? Have they relented?"

This was what he wanted to hear most at the moment.

Daniel was stunned for a moment and shook his head. "No. The hints of 'cooperation' we sent through all channels before fell on deaf ears. There has been no official or unofficial feedback."

The light in Musk's eyes dimmed instantly, and he scratched his hair irritably:

"So what 'interesting' news could there be? Did Intel announce it had developed a nuclear battery?"

"It's about chips." Daniel unlocked the tablet in his hand, pulled up a picture and handed it to Musk - it was the close-up of the Kirin 1515X chip die with "9" engraved on it.

"It is almost certain that even after the ban on advanced semiconductors targeting China takes full effect, there is still an entity with 7-nanometer process capabilities that is secretly producing the processor chips needed by the Ju factory."

Musk subconsciously took the tablet and his eyes fell on the screen.

When the four clear numbers "1515" caught his eyes, the expression on his face froze instantly.

As the CEO of a technology company, he naturally knew what this production batch number meant.

Fresh out of the oven, hot, just last month! After the ban!

"This..." He opened his mouth, but his throat seemed to be blocked by something and he uttered a few meaningless syllables.

At this moment, compared to being angry, he wanted to laugh more——

Are you damn semiconductor giants playing house with China?

Just have fun, but in the end you're going to let Tesla be taken advantage of like a fool?

Good heavens, after all this fuss, are you guys colluding to cheat me?

Is it a human?

Daniel was a little worried by Musk's rapidly changing expression, and asked in a low voice: "Sir, you..."

However, what responded to him was Musk's outburst.

"Look! Look at these great semiconductor giants!"

He walked back and forth in front of the test bench excitedly, waving his arms:

"They can play a double game and betray the agreement they signed without any burden! But what about us?! Why should we pay for their dirty games?!"

"..."

After the furious outburst, anger was replaced by a desperate determination.

Musk suddenly stopped and stared at Daniel:

"Ron! Listen! Find an absolutely reliable channel immediately! No need to hint at anything. Just tell the Chinese people directly that Tesla plans to invest $10 billion to build a super-large vehicle production base and an R&D center in China, guaranteeing the creation of no fewer than production jobs and R&D jobs!"

After saying this, perhaps because he felt his leverage wasn't enough, or perhaps simply out of frustration, he added:

"Also, we can also consider cooperating with China in the aerospace field. SpaceX is not a listed company, and my say is high enough!"

Daniel was stunned by his boss's sudden, almost crazy turn. "Is this... is this too... too radical?"

"Radical?" Musk sneered, his facial muscles trembling slightly. "They've even invested in the semiconductor industry, which is leading the charge against China. Why can't I, a car and rocket maker, do the same?"

But the former still felt it was a bit outrageous: "But even if we don't consider Washington's opinion, the people in Beijing... may not be willing to cooperate with us?"

Musk took a deep breath and said, "The Chinese are even willing to work with TSMC or Samsung. I have no grudges against them, so what's the problem?"

At this time, Jeff Dann, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly said half-jokingly:

"Others might have already negotiated with Beijing before the ban... Besides, looking back now, although TSMC CEO Morris Chang appears to be against China, he might actually be a patriotic entrepreneur..."

This speculation made Musk roll his eyes.

There was only one sentence echoing in my mind -

"I can talk too! I can be patriotic too!"