Saturday, August 27, 2022

"Tesla’s battery metals bill balloons to $100 billion" (TSLA)

From Mining.com, August 25:

Elon Musk had plenty of advice for the mining and metals industry at the company’s Battery Day event in September 2020, where the road map to a $25,000 Tesla was laid out.

A couple of days after the event Musk confirmed in a tweet that Tesla will reach production of 20 million vehicles per year “probably before 2030.” 

Tesla has been ramping up output at an impressive pace despite lockdowns and power problems in China and a late start in Germany, but the scale of the task is put into perspective by Musk’s proud announcement earlier this month that the Texas-based company has now reached the 3 million vehicle-mark – since its first production model launched in 2008. Tesla is expected to deliver 1.4–1.5 million vehicles in 2022.

Not only did Tesla stop working on a cheap and cheerful Model 2, crucial to achieving those lofty goals, now new data compiled by MINING.COM show the run up in metal prices would make a mass market Tesla at that price point almost impossible to build and the bill of materials for 20 million vehicles a year hard to swallow even for a company that is showered with cheap capital.   

https://www.mining.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Chart-Tesla-raw-material-costs-balloon-to-100-billion-.jpg


Combining data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a London-headquartered price reporting agency, and battery supply chain consulting firm, Toronto-based Adamas Intelligence, which tracks demand for EV batteries by chemistry, cell supplier and capacity in over 100 countries, shows just how much has changed since that September 2020 tweet....

....MUCH MORE  

California just said they will prohibit the sale of internal combustion engine powered vehicles in 2035.

From AutoBlog, August 24:
California to ban gas cars by 2035
Plan first announced two years ago is expected to take effect Thursday

And August 26:
California's ban on new internal combustion cars at a glance
It's not a complete ban — there's a carve-out for plug-in hybrids

Unless there are some significant breakthroughs in battery chemistry, manufacturing and materials sourcing, it looks as if California will be known as the "Walking State" in addition to the current moniker "The Brownout State."

Earlier today:
"Environmentalists Have Turned On The Lithium Industry"