Asian Tech Press (Mar 13) -- BYD, China's largest new energy vehicles maker, on Monday denied media reports that Tesla is ending their battery supply partnership.

The Korea Economic Daily exclusively reported late Sunday that Tesla has decided not to use BYD's batteries.

The report said that Tesla did not ask for further supplies after its battery supply contract with BYD for low-cost models such as Tesla Model 3 Standarde xpired earlier this year.

The Korean media analyzed that BYD has direct competition with Tesla in manufacturing and exporting electric vehicles in Europe, India, Southeast Asia and other places, which may be the reason for the termination of the contract.

The report also mentioned that LG Energy Solutions is accelerating the development of lithium iron phosphate batteries for electric vehicles at the request of Tesla, as Tesla's upcoming cheaper models will have a greater demand for such batteries.

BYD responded a short time ago that this is "untrue information, and inconsistent with the actual situation."

Previously there was news that BYD had already started supplying 10GWh batteries for Tesla's European models in 2022, and even the Tesla models featuring Tesla's blade batteries had already been in the C sample testing stage.

Lian Yubo, BYD's executive vice president and director of the Automotive Engineering Research Institute, said in an interview last summer, "BYD respects Tesla, also are good friends with Musk, and immediately ready to supply batteries to Tesla."