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Tesla's $5bn Question

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Apologize if this has been posted before (I searched; couldn't find it). Mods, please move this to a more suitable place if it doesn't fit here, thanks.

I just stumbled upon a fascinating report/supplement discussing the GigaFactory from a raw materials perspective. It is published by Industrial Minerals Data, and it breaks down global supply in a comprehensive way I've never seen before. It's all done from the perspective of the GigaFactory and talks about supply risks, production sites (future and current), and domestic capabilities. There are also some cool pictures of the raw materials used in a lithium ion battery.

It's pretty clear that China is in the drivers seat, with the Congo and Chile playing major supporting roles as well.

Here's a link to the PDF hosted on my Dropbox: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10232291/Tesla_Supplement.pdf

Enjoy!
 
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Apologize if this has been posted before (I searched; couldn't find it). Mods, please move this to a more suitable place if it doesn't fit here, thanks.

I just stumbled upon a fascinating report/supplement discussing the GigaFactory from a raw materials perspective. It is published by Industrial Minerals Data, and it breaks down global supply in a comprehensive way I've never seen before. It's all done from the perspective of the GigaFactory and talks about supply risks, production sites (future and current), and domestic capabilities. There are also some cool pictures of the raw materials used in a lithium ion battery.

It's pretty clear that China is in the drivers seat, with the Congo and Chile playing major supporting roles as well.

Here's a link to download it: Click to view the FULL REPORT

...or a direct link from my Dropbox: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10232291/Tesla_Supplement.pdf

Enjoy!

I couldn't enjoy it. It's not about the Gigafactory, it's a generic piece with a few edits and a Tesla logo slapped on it.
 
I never said it was about the GigaFactory. It's about supplying the GigaFactory with raw materials and the global minerals supply chain.

If you look past the few ads scattered within, there is lots of interesting information. Perhaps not to you, but to others.
 
Holy crap.

All I did was post a link to a website with (what I thought) was an interesting post. I have no vested interest in that site; I'm merely posting what they've made publicly available.

I'll edit the post to only include my DropBox link to the actual PDF. Hopefully that will satisfy the conspiracy theorists and negative Nancy's.
 
Apologize if this has been posted before (I searched; couldn't find it). Mods, please move this to a more suitable place if it doesn't fit here, thanks.

I just stumbled upon a fascinating report/supplement discussing the GigaFactory from a raw materials perspective. It is published by Industrial Minerals Data, and it breaks down global supply in a comprehensive way I've never seen before. It's all done from the perspective of the GigaFactory and talks about supply risks, production sites (future and current), and domestic capabilities. There are also some cool pictures of the raw materials used in a lithium ion battery.

It's pretty clear that China is in the drivers seat, with the Congo and Chile playing major supporting roles as well.

Here's a link to the PDF hosted on my Dropbox: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10232291/Tesla_Supplement.pdf

Enjoy!

Thanks, I enjoyed reading that - clearly presented - perfect for me as an overview.
 
Mr Moores accuses Elon of being ignorant of where the graphite for Tesla battery cells comes from, heavily implying that it is from extremely dirty Chinese mines then later admits Panasonic uses synthetic graphite(from Hitachi) for Tesla batteries.

Mr Moores fails to mention the new Sumitomo Nickel mining operation in The Philippines that should produce enough cobalt as a by product to supply the GF. Also fails to mention the proven reserves of Cobalt in French New Caledonia. Implies GF is dependent on politically unstable countries for Cobalt or unproven reserves in North America and elsewhere.

In other words there are no real significant mineral issues for the GF.

Nissan using rare earth metals in the LEAF may be another matter. According to Tesla CTO JB Straubel not using rare earths in BEV motors makes the software calibration much more difficult but it only needs to be done once and makes motors much cheaper to manufacture.