What is the significance of Tesla refining lithium?

Elon Musk stated the following at the groundbreaking ceremony for a lithium refining facility in Texas the other day.

“In the development of electric vehicles, looking ahead to a few years from now, what is a basic bottleneck is the shortage of supply of battery-grade lithium and lithium ore. As for lithium ore mining, it is actually quite common, and it is carried out everywhere on Earth. Lithium is present in every country. Therefore, there is no shortage of lithium itself, but refining technology for battery-grade lithium in the heavy industry is lacking. Battery grade lithium is extremely precise and must be extremely pure, and when impurities are contained in lithium, it causes battery deterioration. Therefore, the purity must be very high. We have several innovations that we believe are highly effective in refining lithium that have not been done before. Might be a good point to take over this.”

I'm saying it like this.

Here's a brief summary of Elon Musk's remarks.

1. There is a risk that progress in electric vehicles will be hampered by lithium shortages

2. Lithium itself is all over the world and it cannot be said that there is a shortage

3. Perform high-quality lithium purification with Tesla's innovative technology

This is the significance of Elon Musk working on the lithium refining business.

Here is a map of the area where Tesla will build a lithium refining facility.

Tesla chose a location called Corpus Christi in Texas to build a lithium refining facility.

Corpus Christi is a port city located in southern Texas.

As you can see by looking at the map, it is close to Tesla's EV factory, Gigafactory Texas,

It is also located not too far from Gigafactory Mexico, which is scheduled to be built next year. Rather, it is halfway between the two gigafactories, and is the perfect location if lithium is to be transported to both plants.

At the groundbreaking ceremony for the lithium refining facility, Drew Baglino, Tesla's senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering, said:

“Corpus Christi has great talent in the field of oil and gas refining, and it's a great fit for this location. Close to Austin, there is a very good deep-water port, and there is a route where spodume, which is the raw material for this plant, can be easily transported from all over North America. Also, since railways directly pass through, rocks can be carried out and products can also be sent out by rail. It's a really great place and the community support is amazing.”

In other words, you can see that Tesla places both offshore and onshore locations Corpus Christi and emphasizes its function as a transportation hub.

Also, Elon Musk

“I want to emphasize that we have a very clean refinery. As Toyota hinted at, there are no harmful emissions. People can live in the center of refining facilities and live without any adverse effects. It's a very clean operation.”

In this way, it was asserted that lithium refining facilities will aim for environmentally sound operation.

Tesla is ultimately trying to realize an eco-cycle of EV battery materials through this Texas lithium refining facility.

Tesla says it's important to focus on regionalizing the lithium supply chain and utilize all feeds, including manufacturing scrap and end-of-life batteries.

By building and operating a lithium refining facility operated by itself in Texas, Tesla will realize an eco-cycle of battery materials required by electric vehicle factories in North America.

This is Tesla's aim, and it can be said that it is the vision it draws.

Also, Tesla's lithium refining facility in Texas makes full use of technology to make 30% process cuts compared to general facilities, and aims to supply high-quality and reasonable lithium.

Once this facility is completed, I think there is no doubt that Tesla will further expand its gap with competitors due to further vertical integration progress, and establish a firm position as an EV manufacturer and energy company.

Let's continue to keep an eye on Tesla's lithium refining business.