Panasonic makes Tesla's current cells. IIRC, Tesla's patents mostly relate to battery technology (aka: electronics, cell management), not chemistry. Panasonic owns half the Nevada Gigafactory by the way, so Tesla is more or less locked into a Panasonic partnership with regards to anything coming out of Nevada. I think Tesla using Chinese cells in their Shanghai factory is a possibility. But its kind of speculation. Such a move wouldn't be looked well by their Panasonic partners.
Anyway, cell chemistry is normally measured by "number of charging cycles", with current Lithium Ion around 500 cycles or so. The key for Tesla cars is that the car doesn't typically do a complete discharge, so fancy electronics can load-balance (like a SSD) which cells get charged / discharged. (In theory anyway. I have no idea how Tesla makes their battery packs at all).
I don't know how the article can really claim the following
As reported by Bloomberg, one such company is Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL). CATL is apparently already prepared to
begin production on batteries than can last an astounding 16 years, or 1.24 million miles, before needing a replacement.
For reference, many current EV batteries are rated for about 200,000 miles of usage, so that's quite a significant leap forward.
This is too high-level to be useful. Given the differences in electronic systems that manage the battery, the amount of miles a given battery pack can last for is variable. (Weight of the car, air drag efficiency, etc. etc. too many variables). I'd be more trusting of the article if it were reporting number of cycles instead.
Even then, a Li-Ion cell can last longer the slower it is charged (or more specifically: charging at lower voltages: 4.0V charging will give more endurance than 4.2V charging, but 4.2V will charge the battery faster). So now we're talking about use-case specific issues... someone who uses the Tesla Supercharger (high-voltage) for 30-minute quick charges will have their battery wear out faster than someone who uses their 220V or 120V charger at home.
The chemistry / electronics here are very complicated. I don't even know how you come up with "200,000 miles" or "1.24 million miles" unless you very specifically talk about the car's weight, air resistance, driving behaviors, charging methodology, and electronic strategy involved.
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