Tesla’s Cobalt Use

When the Koch brothers try to pretend that battery electric vehicles are worse for the environment than using fossil fuels, they often point out cobalt mining, and the deplorable conditions that some miners are subjected to. Fortunately with the exception of some batteries that were sourced from  LG Chem, Tesla sources the majority of its batteries from Panasonic, which sources its cobalt from the Philippines, and not Congo where the child labor concerns originate.

However, there’s great news regarding cobalt, in that the Tesla Model 3 has the highest battery density of any BEV maker, and the lowest cobalt usage as well, striving to reduce cobalt usage to zero. This is great news both on a cost reduction standpoint, but also on the reduction of global cobalt demand.

https://www.bloomberg.com/hyperdrive