Tesla is a company known for building cars, but its ambitions don’t stop there. Recently, according to a building permit obtained by Electrek, Tesla is building a new “lithium lab” in Sparks, Nevada.
The lab is not located at Tesla’s Nevada SuperFactory, but at a site not far from Reno. In its permit application, Tesla said the purpose of the lab is to conduct “manufacturing R&D (lithium lab)” and will make some upgrades to the existing facility to support tooling installation and process optimization.
Why would Tesla want to build such a lab, Its related to the company’s ambitions in the battery sector. Tesla made it clear at its recent investor day that its goal is to increase production capacity by 10 times by the end of the century. In order to achieve this goal, Tesla will have to become more deeply involved in the battery supply chain.
We know that lithium is one of the key raw materials for batteries, but there is not an adequate supply of lithium on the market today. So Tesla is trying to solve this problem in several ways. On the one hand, the company is building a new lithium refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, which will use a new processing technology to convert lithium into battery-grade lithium hydroxide. On the other hand, Tesla also plans to mine lithium in Nevada and use new technology to extract it. However, since this plan was first announced in 2020, Tesla has not released any more information about it.
It’s unclear what role this new lithium lab will play in these projects, perhaps to test and improve the technology for lithium development and processing, or perhaps to research and develop more efficient and environmentally friendly lithium batteries. In any case, it shows the importance and commitment of Tesla to the battery supply chain.
