July 23, 2020
Electric vehicle visionary, Elon Musk, said he is asking mining companies to produce more nickel. Musk made the comments during his second quarter earning call earlier this week. He said miners will be offered a giant contract from Tesla if they mine nickel efficiently and in an “environmental way,”
The CEO of Tesla will need more raw materials. Musk also announced during the call that his company’s next gigafactory will be built in Austin, Texas. Gigafactories manufacture batteries and cars. Tesla currently has Gigafactories in the U.S., Europe and China.
The company has been reportedly trying to limit dependence on the material to reduce cost and avoid reliance on a material that has links to worker exploitation and environmental degradation.
Cobalt’s chemistry generally provide lithium-ion batteries with greater stability. “The nickel-based cells have higher energy density, so longer range; those are needed for something like a Semi, where every unit of mass that you add in you have to subtract in cargo,” said Musk during the earnings call.
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