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Mid-Nickel",103.5,99.73,3.78,13.78,6.78,[518,519,520,522,524,526,528,530,532,534,536,538],{"date":213,"value":512},{"date":216,"value":513},{"date":219,"value":521},99.19,{"date":222,"value":523},96.02,{"date":225,"value":525},98.23,{"date":467,"value":527},99.24,{"date":329,"value":529},101.29,{"date":339,"value":531},87.61,{"date":341,"value":533},92.44,{"date":344,"value":535},90.96,{"date":347,"value":537},92.24,{"date":350,"value":539},95.09,{"id":541,"uuid":542,"name":543,"slug":544,"full_slug":545,"content":546,"relatedArticles":668,"relatedVideos":669},112473780537331,"6d111100-2bee-425e-9fe2-332d643cacf8","Tesla’s cathode supply chain integration plans in context","teslas-cathode-supply-chain-integration-plans-in-context","article/teslas-cathode-supply-chain-integration-plans-in-context",{"_uid":547,"date":548,"tags":549,"editor":550,"content":560,"excerpt":647,"featured":50,"reporter":648,"_editable":652,"component":653,"seo_title":543,"categories":654,"visibility":660,"author_company":49,"featured_image":661,"seo_description":647,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":666,"formattedArticleDate":667},"8eb33f7e-3dcd-44e3-9e55-6a7ac100b86d","2020-10-09 00:00",[],[551],{"slug":552,"name":553,"content":554},"matthew-bird","Matthew Bird",{"job_title":555,"image":556,"bio":558,"linkedin":559},"Senior Editor - Supply Chains & Data Visualisation",{"filename":557},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/14738033ec/matthew-bird.jpeg","Matthew writes, edits and produces content for Benchmark Intelligence and Benchmark Source across the whole mine to grid supply chain. He also acts as a liaison to the press. He has a PhD in electrochemistry from the University of Nottingham.","https://www.linkedin.com/in/birdmatthew/",{"type":561,"content":562},"doc",[563,570,575,580,585,600,605,610,615,622,627,632,637,642],{"type":564,"attrs":565,"content":566},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[567],{"text":568,"type":569},"Tesla’s cathode supply chain statements stood out during its 2020 Battery Day as the company announced its intention to move into the upstream segments of the lithium ion supply chain.","text",{"type":564,"attrs":571,"content":572},{"textAlign":49},[573],{"text":574,"type":569},"Drew Baglino, SVP, Powertrain and Energy Engineering at Tesla, said: “we’re going to go and start building our own cathode facility in North America and leveraging all of the North American resources that exist for nickel and lithium. And just doing that, just localising our cathode supply chain and production, we can reduce miles travelled by all the materials that end up in the cathode by 80%, which is huge for cost.”",{"type":564,"attrs":576,"content":577},{"textAlign":49},[578],{"text":579,"type":569},"While Tesla was specific on the cost reduction of its cathode plans – suggesting it could achieve an overall 37% reduction in $/kWh – it did not provide extensive details of these plans.",{"type":564,"attrs":581,"content":582},{"textAlign":49},[583],{"text":584,"type":569},"For now, we know that Tesla intends to build its own cathode production facility, which is to be located alongside cell production. It also intends to maximise high nickel cathode production but also transform the nickel-to-cathode supply chain by establishing its own sulphate production, further integrating with the upstream.",{"type":564,"attrs":586,"content":587},{"textAlign":49},[588,590,598],{"text":589,"type":569},"Another key aspect of the company’s upstream strategy is the ",{"text":591,"type":569,"marks":592},"development of a lithium hydroxide refinery in Texas to feed production",[593],{"type":594,"attrs":595},"link",{"href":596,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":597},"https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/exclusive-tesla-becomes-first-automaker-to-enter-lithium-supply-chain-reshapes-foundations-of-china-dominated-spodumene-2","url",{"text":599,"type":569},". The company intends to use unorthodox techniques in its lithium production – Tesla will use a hydrometallurgical process to turn its spodumene concentrate into lithium hydroxide, eliminating the use of sulphuric acid.",{"type":564,"attrs":601,"content":602},{"textAlign":49},[603],{"text":604,"type":569},"The buildout of its own raw material processing and cathode production capability would provide a step towards localising the lithium ion supply chain in North America. However, while Tesla suggested that it would be able to source lithium and nickel supply within North America, to reach its full 3TWh battery plans it will inevitably have to look further afield to source its raw materials.",{"type":564,"attrs":606,"content":607},{"textAlign":49},[608],{"text":609,"type":569},"This approach somewhat reflects the developments of the supply chain in China, which dominates the processing battery materials and cathode production, whereas it is not a competitive raw material producer of lithium, nickel and cobalt.",{"type":564,"attrs":611,"content":612},{"textAlign":49},[613],{"text":614,"type":569},"Tesla’s cathode production and supply chain integration plans remain in their infancy and also lack much detail. For now, Benchmark expects it will remain reliant on cathode production from existing suppliers while it develops and ramps up its capacity.",{"type":616,"attrs":617,"content":619},"heading",{"level":618,"textAlign":49},4,[620],{"text":621,"type":569},"Cobalt-free cathodes?",{"type":564,"attrs":623,"content":624},{"textAlign":49},[625],{"text":626,"type":569},"Tesla’s stance on Battery Day suggested an existential threat to cobalt in the battery supply chain — with the company stating that it was moving towards ‘cobalt-free’ nickel-manganese cathodes.",{"type":564,"attrs":628,"content":629},{"textAlign":49},[630],{"text":631,"type":569},"However, this is somewhat disingenuous as Tesla is increasing its orders for cobalt-containing high nickel cathodes from its current suppliers and it also recently joined the Fair Trade Cobalt Alliance, actions which suggest cobalt will remain critical to Tesla’s lithium ion supply chain for some time. We expect Tesla to continue to use cobalt in its high nickel cathodes for now, and that further developments are needed to see cobalt removed from its cells altogether.",{"type":564,"attrs":633,"content":634},{"textAlign":49},[635],{"text":636,"type":569},"Furthermore, from a cost perspective, as Tesla and other automakers move to higher nickel cathode variants there is less incentive to remove cobalt from batteries as its contribution towards the total bill of materials (BoM) falls. Data from Benchmark’s Lithium ion Battery Database shows that while on average cobalt represented 24% of the BoM costs for NCM 622 (nickel, cobalt, manganese), this drops to 12% in NCM 811 cathodes.",{"type":564,"attrs":638,"content":639},{"textAlign":49},[640],{"text":641,"type":569},"Tesla does of course use cobalt-free cathodes in its LFP (lithium iron phosphate) cells, which it utilises in its standard range Model 3s, produced in China for the Chinese domestic market.",{"type":564,"attrs":643,"content":644},{"textAlign":49},[645],{"text":646,"type":569},"Musk made reference to LFP on Battery Day and suggested it will have a place to play in its Powerpack stationary storage application and other lower-range vehicles – the $25,000 electric vehicle touted by Musk would be a possible candidate for further LFP cells  if it were to utilise LFP cathodes in EVs outside of China. But the bulk of its EVs will utilise high nickel cathodes, which for the foreseeable future will contain cobalt.","Tesla’s cathode supply chain statements stood out during its 2020 Battery Day as the company announced its intention to move into the upstream segments of the lithium ion supply chain. Drew Baglino, SVP, Powertrain and Energy Engineering at Tesla, said: “we’re going to go and start building our own cathode facility in North America and […]",[649],{"slug":552,"name":553,"content":650},{"job_title":555,"image":651,"bio":558,"linkedin":559},{"filename":557},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"8eb33f7e-3dcd-44e3-9e55-6a7ac100b86d\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[655,658],{"slug":656,"name":657},"batteries","Batteries",{"slug":659,"name":298},"cathode","private",{"id":49,"alt":662,"name":662,"focus":662,"title":662,"source":662,"filename":663,"copyright":662,"fieldtype":664,"meta_data":665,"is_external_url":51},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/6f14066e3d/bm-tesla-coming-soon-1.jpg","asset",{"alt":662,"title":662,"source":662,"copyright":662},"Oct 09, 2020","9th October 2020",[],[],1780670088256]