Tesla Inc has announced plans to construct a lithium refinery in Texas to help produce materials for EVs, Reuters reports.
Though Musk did not specify the volume of lithium that the plant would process annually, he said it should produce enough to build around 1 million EVs by 2025, making it the largest processor of the metal in North America.
The announcement marks Tesla’s breakthrough from solely producing vehicles into lithium processing and would make Tesla the only North American auto manufacturer to process its own lithium.
Musk does not plan to rely solely on lithium from Tesla, and will still utilize vendors such as Livent Corp and Albemarle Corp. The current plan is for construction on the Texas facility to finish next year, with production beginning around a year later.
“As we look ahead a few years, a fundamental choke point in the advancement of electric vehicles is the availability of battery grade lithium,” Musk stated at an announcement ceremony this past Monday.
