WR1 General Discussion, page-6042

In a blog post on Tuesday, Tesla – the world’s biggest producer of electric vehicles, announced it was investing more than US$3.6bn to continue growing its Nevada assembly plant.

The money would help to develop a 100GWh 4,680 cell factory with enough capacity to produce batteries for 1.5 million light duty vehicles annually and a dedicated factory to make its Semi truck.

The major EV manufacturer’s move to produce even more batteries is likely representative of the automotive industries general belief in accelerating EV sales, which will in turn drive lithium demand up.
This also neatly lends credence to Abermarles’ claim that the price it expects to receive for lithium this year will jump 40% over 2022 levels.

According to Abermarles’ head of energy storage division, Eric Norris, lithium pricing needs to remain elevated in order to support the incentives required to take on investment risks.

“The (lithium) market is tighter than it was last year,” he said in a 2023 strategic update presentation.