Tesla is arms down the most important vendor of electrical autos (EVs) on the earth’s largest financial system, accounting for 81 per cent of the 87,398 EVs offered within the US within the first quarter.
The Model three was the preferred, racking up gross sales of 38,314 for the three-month interval.
Second and third within the EV gross sales race had been Tesla’s Model Y and Model X, with gross sales of 18,861 and 9,500 respectively, in line with information from UK investor web site Purchase Shares.
America’s best-selling EVs within the first half of 2020. Supply: Purchase SharesTesla founder Elon Musk has famously known as on nickel miners to supply extra to satisfy rising demand for the battery steel.
However simply which different metals is the billionaire tech icon going to want extra of?
EVs drive consumption of copper, cobalt and nickel
The Model three is Tesla’s most inexpensive EV at a retail price of $73,900 and requires 50kg of nickel, 4.5kg of cobalt, and roughly 130lbs of copper, in line with studies.
Model three gross sales in Q1 for the US market would have accounted for 172 tonnes of cobalt, 2,260 tonnes of copper, and 1,915 tonnes of nickel.
Tesla Gigafactory 1, the place Model three battery cells are produced. Supply: TeslaTesla’s complete EV gross sales within the three-month interval would require 321 tonnes of cobalt, 4,208 tonnes of copper, and three,568 tonnes of nickel.
Round 40 ASX firms are concerned within the cobalt area, reminiscent of Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ), Clear TeQ (ASX:CLQ) and New World Cobalt (ASX:NWC).
Firms with publicity to copper embody Encounter Sources (ASX:ENR), which has a number of new discoveries within the Northern Territory, Castillo Copper (ASX:CCZ) and Purple River Sources (ASX:RVR).
There are additionally a variety of nickel producers in Australia which might be nicely positioned to learn from rising gross sales of EVs.
They embody DevEx Sources (ASX:DEV), Western Areas (ASX:WSA), and Panoramic Sources (ASX:PAN).
Tesla recovers battery metals in recycling
With the push for a “circular economy” to cut back the waste going to landfill and a scarcity of provide of essential minerals, main automotive and battery makers are turning to recycled materials.
Tesla recycled 1,000 brief tons of nickel, 320 tons of copper, and 110 tons of cobalt in 2019, in line with Tesla’s impression report.
“None of our scrapped lithium-ion batteries go to landfilling, and 100 per cent are recycled,” Tesla mentioned.
Tesla is constructing a battery recycling system at its Gigafactory in Nevada that may course of end-of-life batteries.
“Through this system, the recovery of critical minerals will be maximised along with the recovery of all metals used in Tesla battery cells, such as copper, aluminium and steel,” the corporate mentioned.
ASX-listed Lithium Australia (ASX:LIT) and EcoGraf (ASX:EGR) are creating tech in Australia to get well battery metals from useless batteries.
Lithium Australia just lately efficiently transformed mine waste and spent lithium-ion batteries into high-performance lithium-ion battery cathodes.
EcoGraf, in the meantime, recovered graphite from a variety of ‘black mass’ materials from recycled batteries.
Black mass is the residual graphite materials remaining after hydrometallurgical processes have recovered the high-value cathode metals from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and is often relegated to landfill.
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