Tesla announced the construction of a lithium refinery at its Investor Day in March 2023 and has now ceremoniously and officially started construction in Texas near Corpus Christi. With this, Tesla takes another step towards independence from suppliers. Tesla is following a tight schedule with the construction of the lithium refinery and wants to complete the plant as early as next year in order to be able to produce enough battery-grade lithium hydroxide for around one million e-cars. The plant will also process lithium from recycled batteries and production waste, using a sulfate-free refining process with reduced process costs. In total, the plant will have an annual processing capacity of 50 GWh. The plant's byproduct will be used for the production of construction materials.
"This investment is critical to our mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy and represents our efforts to aggressively increase the supply of battery-grade lithium hydroxide in North America," Tesla wrote in one of its announcements.
Tesla Lithium Groundbreaking Ceremony https://t.co/0MCiZvQLHl
- Tesla (@Tesla) May 8, 2023
In total, Tesla plans to create about 250 full-time positions at the plant and nearly 1,000 construction jobs, as things stand. Tesla will process the lithium hydroxide into battery cells itself at its U.S. battery factories. Tesla already has a 4680 pilot line in Fremont, California, a battery production facility in partnership with Panasonic in Nevada, and its own 4680 production facility in Texas. Giga Mexico, which was recently announced in March, is also expected to add its own cell manufacturing facility at a later date.
