麝香：特斯拉以大型方式进入锂电池。

Lithium prices rose more than 480 per cent last year, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. In a post on his personal social media, Musk said Tesla could go straight into lithium mining and refining on a large scale because the price of lithium, a key element in making batteries, has reached "insane" levels.

“锂价格已经达到了疯狂的水平，”麝香在推特上写道。“除非他们选择增加采购成本，否则特斯拉可能不得不直接钻探并炼制大规模。”“锂锂本身没有短缺，它几乎到处都是地球，但它是挖掘和精致的很慢。”

2020年9月，特斯拉与澳大利亚锂矿工皮埃蒙特锂签署协议，通过北卡罗来纳州北卡罗来纳州的第6号提供高纯度锂矿石，持续五年（延长五年，共计10年）和超过10年）50,000吨脱淀粉五年。此外，特斯拉的奥斯汀咯癖具有新的氢氧化锂炼油厂，其将脱氨酸钠转化为氢氧化锂，电池的原料，并将在2022年后开放，年产8000吨氢氧化锂。另一方面，皮埃蒙特锂表示，特斯拉可以购买更多的锂，鹰杉可能来自澳大利亚甚至巴西。

Spodumene is typically produced in Australia and refined in China, and the upcoming Tesla refinery will be the first lithium hydroxide refinery in the United States. In other words, it will compete with Lithium hydroxide production in China. Lithium is the foundation of the 21st century, and the supply chain for lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles that dominates In China has begun to shift. Tesla is the first automotive OEM to enter lithium production, which will not only allow Tesla to control costs along the supply chain, but also once again see spodumene trade flows pointing to the US rather than China. For the past generation, China has dominated the lithium market through giants such as Tianqi lithium and Ganfeng Lithium. That, too, would send a red flag to nickel.

The upcoming refinery will convert hard rock spodumene ore into lithium hydroxide, which will be used directly in batteries. Tesla also intends to produce lithium hydroxide using a new hydrometallurgical process that replaces sulfuric acid. Although Drew Baglino, Tesla's senior vice president of powertrains and energy engineering, said the new process could reduce lithium costs by 33 percent, it is not yet commercially viable. In other words, Tesla faces new technical challenges.

Once Tesla is able to steadily produce the lithium hydroxide needed for its batteries, while scaling up production, it will greatly enhance its ability to negotiate future lithium hydroxide contracts in the market. Tesla has clearly realized that it can't rely on upstream players or investors in its supply chain to rapidly expand to meet its needs. Now that Tesla has taken over some of that responsibility from miners and chemists, production will scale up even further once Tesla has mastered the lithium refining process, with rapid growth expected after 2022.

As Tesla enters the upper reaches of the lithium ion battery supply chain in the corporate transformation stage, tesla does not want to become a lithium mining company, after all, its expertise and corporate culture is completely different from that of a chemical refinery. Tesla's lithium hydroxide refinery will allow the company to closely monitor the cost and quality of battery components, as controlling the cost of advanced materials in the electric vehicle supply chain is an increasingly important factor in driving down battery prices.

It would be very encouraging if Tesla could get it all done in time as global supply chains deteriorate and automakers struggle to get battery materials. With the skyrocketing price of lithium, Tesla is likely to go mining itself. Tesla's efforts to move upstream are likely to be replicated by other automakers as well as other areas of the supply chain.