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 forgigafactoriesfor both electric vehicles and energy storage as well asrecycling. 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, isbelow Benchmark’s lower bound estimateof $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 themoney for them and none for mining,” Simon Moores, Benchmark’s chief executive, said. “The industry needs joined up thinking.”
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