Elon Musk: Tesla boss no longer wants to accept "insane lithium prices."
After a price jump of 460 percent in one year, the lithium price has gone to a level that Tesla boss Elon Musk calls insane. He thinks about alternatives.
Elon Musk announced via his favorite medium, Twitter, of which he is now the largest single shareholder, that he is worried about the massive increase in lithium prices and is not willing to accept it in the long run.
Elon’s message was written in response to a tweet showcasing the average price of lithium per ton per year in the last twenty years. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, lithium has gone up more than 480% in the last year alone. Elon said “Price of lithium has gone to insane levels! Tesla might actually have to get into the mining & refining directly at scale, unless costs improve. There is no shortage of the element itself, as lithium is almost everywhere on Earth, but pace of extraction/refinement is slow.”
Price of lithium has gone to insane levels! Tesla might actually have to get into the mining & refining directly at scale, unless costs improve.There is no shortage of the element itself, as lithium is almost everywhere on Earth, but pace of extraction/refinement is slow.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2022
What particularly annoys the Tesla CEO is the fact that there is no shortage of lithium worldwide. According to the US Geological Survey, a department of the US Department of the Interior, there are lithium deposits almost everywhere in the United States of America. In Europe, the German Upper Rhine Valley was recently identified as the continent's largest reservoir with almost 16 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent.
Armen Hareyan is the founder and the Editor in Chief of Torque News. He founded TorqueNews.com in 2010, which since then has been publishing expert news and analysis about the automotive industry. He can be reached at Torque News Twitter, Facebok, Linkedin and Youtube.
