Syrah’s mine in Mozambique is said to possess the capability of producing 350,000 tons of graphite every year. Tesla will start sourcing 8,000 tons of graphite every year starting 2025
Electric vehicle (EV) brand Tesla seems to be cutting its dependency on China as it has signed an agreement with an Australian company for sourcing graphite. Australia’s Syrah Resources is reportedly operating one of world’s largest graphite mines in Mozambique. The value of the deal has not been disclosed by any of the parties.
A report by the AP notes that Tesla has plans to source as much as 80 per cent of the graphite it uses in car batteries. It is to be noted here that Tesla was till recently sourcing a lot of graphite from China. The country is known as one of the largest producers of graphite in the world. The move comes right after Tesla has disbanded its media relations team.
Syrah’s mine in Mozambique is said to possess the capability of producing 350,000 tons of graphite every year. Tesla, as per the report, will start sourcing 8,000 tons of graphite every year starting 2025. As Tesla expands production, the number of delivered vehicles is also expected to hit record levels in 2022.
Data acquired by Finbold indicates that Tesla’s 2021 deliveries stood at 936,172, growing 87.4 per cent from 2020’s figure of 499,550. In 2019, the company delivered 367,500 vehicles under different models. Based on the company’s historical year-over-year percentage growth average between 2014 and 2021, Fibold estimates that in 2022 the vehicle shipments will for the first time surpass the one million to stand at 1,544,402, growing 64.9 per cent from last year’s figure. Additionally, the target will be influenced by operations at the new Texas and Berlin plants.
Since the company began delivering electric vehicles in 2014, the highest annual growth was registered between 2017 and 2018 at 137.8%, from 103,100 to 245,200. In 2014, 2015 and 2016 Tesla’s vehicle deliveries stood at 32,000, 50,000 and 76,200 respectively. The company is known to design its chips in-house to beat the semiconductor shortage, an advantage it has over other competing automakers. At the same time, Tesla has also reprogrammed software to use less scarce chips.
