On May 11, Elon Musk, CEO of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, said on Tuesday local time that the company might buy a mining company. On the same day, musk attended the 2022 future automobile summit hosted by the financial times. He said through a remote video that Tesla was willing to buy a mining company if it would accelerate the global adoption of clean energy technologies if it produced the metals needed for electric vehicles (EV).
The entire electric vehicle industry is increasingly worried that the supply of lithium, nickel, copper and other metals may not be enough to meet the demand in the next decade, which has triggered speculation about whether Tesla will consider entering the mining field.
Musk said at the summit that this is not impossible. "We will do our best to address the constraints in accelerating the global transition to sustainable energy. We don't want to buy mining companies, but if this is the only way to accelerate the transition, then we will do so," he said
Although Tesla has signed electric vehicle metal manufacturing contracts with global suppliers, its goal of producing 20 million vehicles per year by 2030 will require more metal supply. Last year, Tesla produced nearly 1 million electric vehicles.
Executives from other carmakers, including Carlos Tavares, CEO of Tesla competitor stellantis NV, also warned that the auto industry was facing a shortage of metal supply.
Tesla has no experience in the time-consuming and laborious business of building and operating mines, so industry analysts suggest that the company focus on acquiring existing mining operators.
Many in the mining industry point out that the cost of acquiring an existing metal producer is far lower than the price of twitter, and musk plans to spend $43 billion on the social media network.
Tesla reached lithium supply agreements with Ganfeng lithium, Levent and Albemarle, but its lithium supply agreement with Piedmont lithium was shelved last year.
Tesla also reached nickel supply agreements with vale SA and Talon metals.
