Tesla’s Master Plan may underestimate scale of mining investment

Tesla today released the details behind its plan to transition the world to clean energy, estimating how much it will cost for the world to reach 240 terawatt hours of total battery deployment.

The total bill for mining, refining, chemicals, battery production and gigafactories came to $3.4 trillion, Tesla said. The biggest mining and refining investments required by Tesla’s plan are needed for lithium ($374 billion) and graphite ($282 billion).

Tesla said a total of $2 trillion investment is needed for gigafactories for both electric vehicles and energy storage as well as recycling. This is in line with Benchmark’s estimate of $1.5 to $2 trillion.

But their estimate that investment in mining, refining and chemicals will be $1.4 trillion, is below Benchmark’s lower bound estimate of $2.5 trillion and under half of Benchmark’s upper bound estimate of $3 trillion.

“Let’s not make the same error we made with gigafactories, with all the money for them and none for mining,” Simon Moores, Benchmark’s chief executive, said. “The industry needs joined up thinking.”