At a recent conference, two sources speaking with knowledge on Tesla told Reuters that the company is expecting global shortages of nickel, copper and other electric-vehicle battery minerals.
The company expects this to happen in the near future due to underinvestment in the mining industry.
The report states that the copper industry hasn’t been properly invested in for years, and the industry is currently working hard to develop new mines as more batteries are being used.
This doesn’t look good for electric cars since it uses twice as much copper as traditional vehicles, according to the report. As automakers try to bring the prices of EVs down it will be a difficult task if the price of copper continues to rise.
Not to mention Tesla’s other business the Powerpack and Powerwall, which is focused on manufacturing giant batteries.
EVs won’t be the only devices that are affected. The report states that smart home devices like Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Nest thermostat will use about 1.5 million tonnes of copper by 2030.
Source: Reuters
