RE:American based global automaker and EV leaderDon't be so sure. It is very different for an outsider to make a false claim in speaking (even if you are the president), and for a public company to knowingly mislead the market in a formal press release even though you clearly know all the facts.
Nano One knew very well how this wording would be interpreted by the public. Nano One also knew very well that if they mislead the public on purpose, it will come back to bite them later, and it would likely also anger Tesla. I maintain that it would be foolish of the company to risk that.
And Tesla has clearly said they want to help speed up technology development. A Tesla-Nano partnership could probably consist of Tesla proving the Nano technology out and then letting other suppliers like Panasonic (or even Sumitomo) scale the technology quicker.
As Drew Baglino said on Teslas investor day:
"We have tried out a bunch of new things (in cathode processing) and are confident that they will work. As they prove out, we want to bring them back to suppliers so they can build new facilities more quickly and with less investment."
Either way, lets leave it there and we will see eventually. Either way, the future seems to look very bright. This discussion seems like a good problem to have when we know that we are in bed with at least one of these giants.