Where Does Tesla Get its Lithium? (Updated 2023) (2024)

FAQs

Where is Tesla getting its lithium from? ›

Tesla is currently working with Japanese company Panasonic, its longtime partner, as well as South Korea's LG Energy Solutions, the second largest battery supplier in the world. They supply the EV maker with cells containing nickel and cobalt.

Today, we are breaking ground on Tesla's in-house lithium refinery, located in the greater Corpus Christi area of Texas. Once complete, the facility will represent an investment of >$1B in Southwest Texas.

Source of EV Batteries

Half of the world's cobalt originates from the Democratic Republic of Congo, while Indonesia, Australia, and Brazil make up the lion's share of global nickel reserves, and South America's 'Lithium Triangle' consisting of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina hold 75% of the world's lithium.

The $1 Billion Lithium Refinery

Once finished, the site will represent an investment of over $1 billion. Musk further said that Tesla aims to produce enough battery-grade lithium hydroxide at the South Texas facility to make 1 million electric cars each year.

Australia is the world's largest lithium producer, accounting for nearly half of global production in 2021. Bolivia, Chile and Argentina (the “l*thium triangle”) have the largest estimated resources, with nearly 50 million tonnes of lithium between the three countries.

Lithium is currently produced from hard rock or brine mines. Australia is the world's biggest supplier, with production from hard rock mines. Argentina, Chile and China mainly produce it from salt lakes.

Processing plants that produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide are relatively rare in the U.S., with only two operating.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 8 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA. O) on Monday broke ground on a Texas lithium refinery that CEO Elon Musk said should produce enough of the battery metal to build about 1 million electric vehicles (EVs) by 2025, making it the largest North American processor of the material.

Tesla has broken ground on a much-anticipated lithium refinery in Texas. The automaker will pour US$375 million into the plant near Corpus Christi as it aims to produce lithium, crucial for its electric vehicle batteries, closer to home, CNBC reports.

Because lithium deposits come embedded in other metals and minerals, extracting lithium can be incredibly difficult. More refineries—the plants where raw lithium is processed into a concentrated form of the metal that goes into batteries—need to be built in North America.

Where is the largest lithium deposit in the United States? ›

The Thacker Pass Lithium Mine is a lithium clay mining development project in Humboldt County, Nevada, which is the largest known lithium deposit in the US and one of the largest in the world. There has been significant exploration of Thacker Pass since 2007.

Yet the US is home to only one active lithium mine in the state of Nevada, manufacturing just 1% of global lithium production. Through legislation and executive authority, US President Joe Biden is courting domestic production of lithium to shift the country's reliance away from foreign nations, most notably China.

Lithium mining is, like all mining, environmentally and socially harmful. More than half the current lithium production, which is very water intensive, takes place in regions blighted by water shortages that are likely to get worse due to global heating.

We are pleased to be able to partner with Tesla to supply lithium resources produced in North America. The electric vehicle and critical battery materials landscape has changed significantly since 2020 and this agreement reflects the importance of – and growing demand for – a North American lithium supply chain.

The process of extracting lithium consumes significant amounts of water and energy, and lithium mining can pollute the air and water with chemicals and heavy metals. In addition, mining lithium can disrupt wildlife habitats and cause soil erosion, leading to long-term ecological damage.

While the world does have enough lithium to power the electric vehicle revolution, it's less a question of quantity, and more a question of accessibility. Earth has approximately 88 million tonnes of lithium, but only one-quarter is economically viable to mine as reserves.

With 8 million tons, Chile has the world's largest known lithium reserves. This puts the South American country ahead of Australia (2.7 million tons), Argentina (2 million tons) and China (1 million tons). Within Europe, Portugal has smaller quantities of the valuable raw material.

Bolivia. Bolivia has the highest identified lithium resources in the world with 20 million tonnes, as per the US Geological Survey data.

China's the largest consumer of lithium because of its booming electronics and electric vehicle industries.

Will we run out of lithium? ›

U.S. geological survey the world is getting better at mining battery metals including lithium. As of 2021, it was estimated that the world had 88 million tonnes of lithium resources.

Nevada is currently home to the only lithium mine in the United States — the Silver Peak mine — which is operated by North Carolina-based chemicals company Albemarle Corp. and began operating in the 1960s.

Albemarle is the biggest company on the list and the world's largest lithium producer. Albemarle operates the only active lithium mine in the U.S., located in Silver Peak, Nevada.

Albemarle, the world's top producer of lithium and the operator of mines in Australia, Chile and the U.S., says it plans to bring its Kings Mountain, North Carolina mine online by 2027.

But Musk also criticized California's sour business climate and economic environment for his decision to shift the Tesla headquarters from Palo Alto to Texas. “If a team is winning for too long, they tend to get complacent,” Musk said in December 2020.

The Round Top deposit is also believed to contain significant amount of lithium. The Round Top Mountain in Texas is believed to hold one of the most concentrated rare earth deposits in the US.

Tesla expects construction on its new Texas lithium facility to be completed next year. Tesla broke ground Monday on its new lithium refinery in Texas, which is expected to produce enough of the battery-grade metal to build one million electric vehicles by 2025.

Inside the only lithium producer in the U.S., which provides the critical mineral used in batteries by Tesla, EV makers. Silver Peak has been producing lithium since the 1960s, and is currently the United States' only lithium production site.

Gigafactory Texas (also known as Giga Texas or Gigafactory 5) is an automotive manufacturing facility near Austin, Texas built by Tesla, Inc.

Located in Bastrop, outside of Austin city limits, Musk has spent millions purchasing land in the quaint town in hopes he can avoid big-city regulations, the Wall Street Journal first reported.

Is lithium mining worse than oil drilling? ›

Lithium mining does have an environmental impact, but it is no worse than oil drilling. This is especially true when you consider the carbon emissions produced from petroleum products during their usage, as compared to lithium-ion batteries that have little to no GHG emissions during their use.

Running Out of Lithium

An inability to produce enough lithium would result in severe delays to the roll out and implementation of electric transport and renewable power – as such, it is fair to question whether there is enough of the prized element to meet global needs.

Lithium extraction inevitably harms the soil and causes air contamination. According to a report by Friends of the Earth (FoE), lithium extraction inevitably harms the soil and causes air contamination.

Lithium in Food Products

The main sources of Li in the diet are cereals, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, and some mineral waters [44]. It may also be found in some spices such as nutmeg, coriander seeds, or cumin; however, their share in the total supply of this element is negligible in many geographic regions [49].

In first place is Albemarle's Greenbushes lithium mine in Australia, which produced 37.5 kilotonnes of lithium in 2022. Former JV partner Tianqi Lithium invested $382 million to increase production in 2018, but Albemarle took full control in 2020 as Tianqi sold assets to pay down debts.

Tesla officially broke ground Monday on a Texas lithium refinery, making it the only U.S. automaker to refine its own lithium. CEO Elon Musk said the refinery will produce enough battery-grade lithium for 1 million electric vehicles by 2025, which would make Tesla the largest processor of lithium in North America.

The only advanced-stage lithium project in Mexico is Ganfeng Lithium's Sonora Lithium Clay Project, 100% held by Ganfeng through its holdings in Bacanora Lithium and Sonora Lithium.

Lithium extraction has adverse impacts on the environment, like any other mineral that we mine for. However, similar to coal and gas, lithium mining can result in soil degradation, water shortages, biodiversity loss, damage to ecosystem functions, air contamination and, overtime, an increase in global warming.

Batteries are one of the most dangerous items to leave in a landfill. The thin metal exterior of a battery will decompose within 100 years, exposing the heavy metals inside, which will never decompose and are toxic to the environment. Fortunately, both single-use and reusable batteries can be recycled easily.

The ores from the hard-rock mine Tesla uses contain up to 2.1% lithium. It takes less than 10,000 pounds of material to produce 2,000 pounds of spodumene — a mineral filled with lithium aluminum inosilicate. The maximum amount of lithium a Tesla car battery contains is around 165 pounds.

Where does the US get its lithium? ›

An aerial view of the Silver Peak Lithium Mine in Silver Peak, Nevada. The facility is the U.S.' lone lithium producer. Much of that demand comes from the booming global EV market, with sales reaching historic levels last year and on track to do so again in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency.

Tesla's primary battery cell supplier, Panasonic, is once again looking to build a new factory in the US after recently announcing its plans to construct one in Kansas.

Under the agreement, GM will make a $650 million equity investment in Lithium Americas, which represents the largest-ever investment by an automaker to produce battery raw materials. Lithium Americas estimates the lithium extracted and processed from the project can support production of up to 1 million EVs per year.

As with all mining, there are concerns about lithium mines, but some experts overstate the potential environmental cost while neglecting to mention a big advantage: mining for lithium is much cleaner than mining for coal. Lithium is also much more efficient.

Relative to fossil fuels, Cobalt mining is only responsible for around 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2e) equivalent. For Lithium mining, it is estimated to be in a similar range at around 1.3+ million tonnes of carbon annually, with every tonne of mined lithium equating to 15 tonnes of CO2 into the air.

Lithium toxicity signs are obvious and can be identified and managed easily; however, ignoring it can be fatal. Indeed, in some cases, lithium toxicity can lead to coma, brain damage, or even death. Moreover, lithium can induce serotonin syndrome, a potentially fatal and life-threatening condition[31].

And although companies including Tesla claim they don't source cobalt from operations using child labor, “10% of the world's cobalt is coming out of these artisanal mines—it's a huge amount of product,” Posner said.

Lithium-ion batteries contain metals such as cobalt, nickel, and manganese, which are toxic and can contaminate water supplies and ecosystems if they leach out of landfills. Additionally, fires in landfills or battery-recycling facilities have been attributed to inappropriate disposal of lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium mining does have an environmental impact, but it is no worse than oil drilling. This is especially true when you consider the carbon emissions produced from petroleum products during their usage, as compared to lithium-ion batteries that have little to no GHG emissions during their use.

The company's Shanghai factory accounted for more than half of the automaker's global production in 2022. Tesla generated $18.15 billion in revenue from China last year, accounting for over one fifth of its total revenue.

What will Tesla use instead of cobalt? ›

The lithium iron phosphate batteries Tesla has invested in differ in the battery chemistry required to create the positive end of the battery during discharge, called the cathode. While the battery still requires lithium, it uses iron, which is abundant and cheap, instead of metals like cobalt and nickel.

Musk explained that while Apple's batteries use 100% cobalt, Tesla's use is much lower: “Apple uses I think almost 100% cobalt in their batteries and cell phones and laptops, but Tesla uses no cobalt in the iron-phosphate packs, and almost none in the nickel-based chemistries,” Musk said.

Unsurprisingly, the United States had the highest number of Tesla sales out of any country in the world in 2022.

World's largest battery maker announces major breakthrough in energy density. In one of the most significant battery breakthroughs in recent years, the world's largest battery manufacturer CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg which it says will go into mass production this year.

Lithium production moved overseas beginning in the 1970s, and now there is only one active mine left in the country, in Clayton Valley near Silver Peak, Nevada.

Battery issues, climate control, and in-car electronics are among the biggest problems in electric vehicles. Electric car subscriptions allow you to test an EV before you buy, so you can check reliability first-hand.

All lithium-ion batteries use flammable materials, and incidents such as the one in the Bronx are likely the result of “thermal runaway,” a chain reaction which can lead to a fire or catastrophic explosion, according to Khoo.