CompanyGraph
Tesla, Inc.
TSLA · United States
Battery cell manufacturing and vehicle assembly are housed inside single Gigafactory complexes, physically eliminating battery pack transportation cost and scheduling latency between those two stages.
Cell production and vehicle assembly share the same physical floor inside each Gigafactory, which mechanically couples cell yield to assembly output — any dry electrode coating failure does not create an inventory gap but halts vehicle production directly, because there is no supplier-diversification buffer between the two stages. That same integration eliminates inter-facility battery pack logistics, yet it cannot be expanded faster than the 18-to-24-month equipment procurement cycle, making cell throughput the hard ceiling on every vehicle and energy storage unit that can be shipped. Expanding that ceiling requires building new Gigafactories, but site-specific permitting, utility interconnections, and a three-to-four-year construction timeline constrain how quickly new cell capacity can be brought online — and Chinese government restrictions on lithium and rare earth element exports introduce supply-side pressure before construction is even complete. As vehicles accumulate in the field, Full Self-Driving neural network training data, Supercharger firmware authentication, and Powerwall proprietary communication protocols each tie the customer to the existing hardware platform, so the installed base becomes structurally dependent on continued cell output from the same constrained production system.
How does this company make money?
Vehicles are sold directly to customers without franchise dealership intermediaries. Energy storage systems are sold to utilities and commercial customers. Regulatory credits — certificates that other automakers must purchase to satisfy emissions requirements they cannot meet through their own fleets — are sold to those automakers. Supercharger network usage generates charges from non-Tesla vehicles that access the network.
What makes this company hard to replace?
Full Self-Driving software depends on neural network training data collected from the existing vehicle fleet, and that data is vehicle-specific, so it cannot be transferred to a different platform. Supercharger network authentication is embedded in vehicle firmware, tying charging access to the vehicle itself. Powerwall home battery systems integrate with the Tesla mobile app through proprietary communication protocols, so switching energy management software requires replacing the underlying hardware interface.
What limits this company?
Dry electrode coating and structural pack assembly equipment carries an 18-to-24-month procurement and installation lead time and cannot be repurposed for other uses, so Gigafactory cell capacity cannot be expanded faster than that horizon and cannot be bridged through conventional automotive supplier contracts. Cell throughput is therefore the hard ceiling on every vehicle and energy storage unit that can be shipped.
What does this company depend on?
Lithium hydroxide and nickel sulfate are required inputs for battery cathode production. Semiconductor chips supply the Full Self-Driving computer hardware. CATL and Panasonic battery cell manufacturing partnerships provide additional cell supply. Rare earth elements are required for permanent magnet motors. Nevada Gigafactory 1 and Shanghai Gigafactory 3 are the physical production facilities the manufacturing model depends on.
Who depends on this company?
Supercharger network operators depend on standardized connector protocols and charging authentication systems remaining consistent. Solar roof installation contractors depend on Powerwall battery system availability for their own work to proceed. Utility-scale energy storage projects depend on Megapack delivery schedules aligning with grid interconnection deadlines set by external regulators and grid operators.
How does this company scale?
Battery cell manufacturing chemistry and vehicle platform architectures replicate across multiple Gigafactory locations using identical equipment specifications, so those elements do not require redesign at each new site. What resists scaling is Gigafactory construction itself: site-specific permitting, utility interconnections, and the three-to-four-year construction timeline required for integrated battery and vehicle production facilities remain bottlenecks at every new location.
What external forces can significantly affect this company?
Chinese government restrictions on lithium and rare earth element exports directly affect battery material supply chains. Federal Reserve interest rate policies affect consumer auto loan availability and vehicle affordability. The California Air Resources Board Zero Emission Vehicle mandate creates regulatory demand for electric vehicle credits, which shapes how automakers across the industry allocate their compliance obligations.
Where is this company structurally vulnerable?
Because cell production and vehicle assembly share the same physical facility, a defect mode or equipment failure in the dry electrode coating process simultaneously suspends battery pack output and vehicle assembly at that site. The co-location that eliminates logistics cost also eliminates the supplier-diversification buffer that would otherwise isolate a cell production disruption from vehicle output.
Supply Chain
EV Battery Supply Chain
The EV battery supply chain is shaped by three structural constraints that interact to determine who can participate and at what scale: a single battery cell requires lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, and graphite — each sourced through its own constrained supply chain — meaning disruption to any one mineral cascades through cell production; gigafactory-scale manufacturing demands $2-5 billion in capital and two to three years to reach production quality, concentrating cell production among a small number of firms; and no single battery chemistry optimizes for energy density, safety, cost, and longevity simultaneously, forcing the system into parallel technology paths that fragment scale advantages.
Automotive Supply Chain
The automotive supply chain is shaped by three root constraints: just-in-time assembly dependency where parts must arrive in exact sequence to moving production lines, platform integration complexity where a single vehicle contains 20,000-30,000 parts sourced from hundreds of suppliers, and tooling commitment where retooling a production line requires years and billions of dollars in irreversible capital.