Tesla-CATL partnership could be ‘game changer’ for U.S. EVs, says Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley noted that Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., or CATL, is working with Tesla on faster charging batteries, which follows news that CATL is supplying machinery to Tesla’s Giga Nevada factory. China’s CATL is effectively barred from selling into the U.S. directly, but is able to license battery tech to partners and charge a royalty fee, noted the analyst, who notes that the U.S. is an under-penetrated EV market in need of high quality, cheap battery tech and that China is a highly penetrated EV market with an oversupply of batteries. The firm, which believes a Tesla-CATL partnership “could be a game changer” for the U.S. electric vehicle market, has an Overweight rating and $320 price target on Tesla shares.