In a first among United States automakers, Tesla will begin refining its own lithium, a critical material for electric vehicle batteries.
The company broke ground on a $375 million lithium refining plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, this week, which CEO Elon Musk said will process enough lithium for 1 million vehicles annually.
"We thought it was important to address ... a fundamental choke point in the advancement of electric vehicles, [which] is the availability of battery-grade lithium," Musk said at the groundbreaking ceremony on Monday.
[...] Over the last year, the Biden administration has directed billions of dollars to automakers, materials processors, and start-up companies to help address this gap in domestic battery manufacturing. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law last August, also adjusted the Clean Vehicle Tax Credit so that eligible vehicles must meet certain battery sourcing requirements, with materials largely coming from the U.S. or free-trade-agreement partners.
Tesla processing its own lithium will help ensure the company's vehicles qualify for those credits and will protect it from supply chain fluctuations and geopolitical disruptions. While it is the only U.S. automaker with a plan to refine its own lithium so far, General Motors announced in January that it would invest $650 million in the Thacker Pass lithium mining project in Nevada.
Tesla claims its refining process is more environmentally friendly and will consume 20 percent less energy than conventional methods. It will also produce less-toxic byproducts that could be repurposed in construction materials, the company said. "We end up as a net environmentally very neutral site," said Turner Caldwell, senior manager of battery minerals and metals at Tesla. The company estimates construction on the Texas plant will conclude in 2025.
[...] Caldwell said that while the Texas facility's lithium will originally come from hardrock mines, the process is designed to be "feed flexible," meaning it could in the future refine lithium from recycled sources, such as manufacturing scrap and end-of-life batteries.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17, @11:45AM
Dear Mr. Musk, according to tfa, you said,
> a fundamental choke point in the advancement of electric vehicles,
I believe the correct statement is,
a fundamental choke point in the advancement of battery electric vehicles,
ftfy
It looks like a prediction made back when Tesla was just starting up may still be good, it went something like this:
Musk really wants to be in the battery business, but until that market grows enough he'll stay in the car business to have a market for his batteries.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Wednesday May 17, @05:13PM
What does "lees-toxic" mean in quantifiable terms relative to what makes people start dropping over some years later after money has changed hands?
We once had lead in our paint. Which some children would lick.
By boring a hole, can Tesla cheaply, and thus safely, release the toxic byproducts into the ground water? Or could they be disbursed in the atmosphere by green energy wind turbines?
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17, @07:32PM
For someone who likes to criticize and complain about other companies getting government handouts, his companies are sure very good at grabbing it for themselves.