Tesla has announced plans to build its own lithium refinery to produce battery materials, with a groundbreaking event held in Texas on Monday. The refinery will be located in the coastal city of Corpus Christi, around 300 kilometers from Austin, where Tesla’s largest factory and headquarters are located. According to CEO Elon Musk, who arrived in a Cybertruck, the refinery will be completed by 2024 and deliver materials about a year later.
By being the only electric car manufacturer in North America to process its own lithium into battery materials, Tesla will be able to achieve its ambitious growth goals. Until now, the majority of the battery production process has occurred in China. Musk believes that without this move, the availability of lithium for electric cars would become limited in the future.
Musk estimates that the refinery will provide enough lithium for one million electric vehicles per year, more than the entire capacity of North America. While Tesla will continue to purchase refined lithium from suppliers, just as it does with batteries, Musk encourages other companies to enter the processing industry.
The event was streamed live online and featured Musk, other executives, and the Governor of Texas. The final design of the facility, which eliminates the use of sodium sulfate, a hazardous byproduct of traditional lithium refining, was revealed on Twitter.
Musk also promised that the plant would be “very clean” and “not produce any toxic emissions,” making it possible for people to live near it without any negative effects. Drew Baglini, Tesla’s Senior Vice President of Technology, praised the Corpus Christi location for its talent pool and the support from the local population, adding that skills from the oil and gas industry would be useful in the Tesla refinery. The Governor of Texas stated that the state aims to be self-sufficient and not dependent on a foreign nation.