Tesla will make its own cobalt-free batteries, promising to lower the price of electric cars to the lowest level in the market

During the Battery Day Conference just held by Tesla yesterday, Tesla announced plans to make batteries in its own factories, instead of buying them from other manufacturers as before. In addition, Tesla will also manufacture batteries with cathode-free cathodes for the first time.

Cobalt is the most expensive material used in every battery. Therefore, the production of batteries without cobalt promises to help reduce the cost of electric cars equivalent to those that run on gasoline or oil.

Tesla has now successfully produced an electric car that costs as little as $ 25,000, $ 10,000 less than today’s cheapest car. Tesla can do this with its own cobalt-free batteries.

“It’s extremely important that we make cars that everyone can afford,” said CEO Elon Musk . Affordability is key to how we will scale. ”

Cobalt is also known as the “blood diamond of the battery”. Because this way of metal mining destroys the environment, and mining uses a lot of child labor. There has been a lawsuit against Tesla, Apple, Alphabet, Dell and Microsoft, alleging that the products of these companies are using cobalt materials exploited by children.

That is why Tesla worked hard to get rid of cobalt, and replaced it with nickel. Elon Musk is urging companies to mine more nickel. “Let’s create more nickel, because it’s very important,” said Tesla CEO.

Nickel is mined in many parts of the world, while cobalt is mostly only in the Congo. However, the exploitation of nickel also causes a lot of environmental pollution.

Reference: theverge