Unless organisations invest in lithium companies, they will not have adequate supply to meet EV demand......A good read.
Business
Elon Musk Takes to Clubhouse App to Call for More Battery Cells
By1 February 2021, 9:43 pm AEDT
Speaking on invite-only social networking app Clubhouse,
Tesla Inc.Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk stepped briefly away from debating the existence of aliens and the merits of
wiring a monkey’s brain so that it can play video gamesto stress that Tesla’s battery suppliers need to increase their production of battery cells.
“It’s important to emphasize to our suppliers, we’re not trying to put them out of business, we want them to increase their rate,” Musk said Monday.
Tesla suppliersPanasonic Corp.,Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd.andLG Chem Ltd.have been under growing pressure to scale up their operations with Tesla increasing its purchase of battery cells and announcing newly ambitious plans for car production.
Tensions came to a head in September when Musk implied in a series oftweetsthat Tesla will begin producing its own battery cells, even as it ramps up buying from outside suppliers. The following day, the shares of Japan, South Korea and China-based Tesla battery suppliers’ eachslidmore than 4%.
Tesla’s goal is to produce 20 million electric vehicles a year -- 40 times thealmost 500,000 vehiclesthe company delivered in 2020. Achieving the goal is significant because that will replace about 1% of the 2 billion carsprojected to be on roadsby 2030, thereby “moving the needle” in the company’s fundamental goal of accelerating the advent of sustainable energy, Musk said on Monday.
“We’re trying to grow car production as fast as possible, but the primary limiting factor there is battery cell production,” Musk said. In the past he has warned that even with cell suppliers operating at maximum speed, Tesla will encounter significant shortages in 2022 and beyond unless the company starts producing its own cells.
Musk’s outcries haven’t fallen on deaf ears. Panasonic isplanning to addanother line to the Nevada-based Gigafactory 1 battery plant it jointly runs with Tesla, part of a more than $100 million investment in building out its battery production capacity, according to Nikkei. The company is alsoexploring opportunitiesto set up a lithium-ion battery production business in Norway.
Even such build-out may not prove enough for Musk, who’saiming toaccelerate the company’s compound annual growth. “We’re getting as much as possible from suppliers, but even that’s not enough,” Musk said.
(20min delay)