Tesla's Texas Lithium Refinery to be Constructed; Is It for the New 4680 Battery Cell Tech?

Tesla's Texas lithium refinery has been confirmed by Elon Musk. The billionaire announced this effort during a conference on Wednesday, Oct. 20.

As of writing, almost all-electric vehicles, as well as plug-in hybrid cars, rely on lithium-ion batteries.

However, since these batteries use a very limited material, lithium, making them is quite expensive.

Because of this, Tesla's CEO is now encouraging other companies to start refining lithium in order to ease supply chain issues.

Tesla's Texas Lithium Refinery to be Constructed

According to Bloomberg's latest report, Elon confirmed Tesla's plan to construct a lithium refinery in Texas during the automaker's Q3 conference call.

He shared this project when an analyst asked him about the progress of Tesla's new 4680 battery cell tech.

For the past months, Tesla has weighed if it will really construct a lithium refinery in Texas. The automaker considered Louisiana as one of its location candidates.

But, Tesla also told state regulators that it plans to build the refinery facility near Corpus Christi.

The EV developer added that this factory would be used to process raw ore material into a more production-ready one.

Issue With Lithium

The World Economic Forum recently reported that the world needs around two billion zero-emission vehicles to eliminate carbon emissions completely.

However, there's one problem. Is the world's lithium material enough to make all the needed batteries for manufactured EVs?

Because of the rising electric car demands, WEF said the global supplies are having issues with delivering the needed lithium material.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) explained that there could be serious lithium shortages by 2025.

On the other hand, Credit Suisse claimed that the demand for lithium could treble, allowing the supply to be stretched.

If you want to know more about other predictions regarding the lithium material supply across the globe, you can visit this link.

In other stories, Tesla's universally compatible home charging station has been launched.

Meanwhile, the new Tesla Smart Summon feature for FSD is expected to debut soon.

For more news updates about Tesla and its other business plans, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

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Written by Griffin Davis