In June, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed at an all-staff company meeting that Tesla was considering building a factory in North America, while Musk hinted at Canada. This is also confirmed by Tesla’s lobbying to the Ontario government in Canada.
In addition, senior Tesla employees visited Vale Canada in Sudbury, Ontario, in August, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The visit is also part of Tesla’s mission to investigate the location of its new factory, which currently includes Ontario and Quebec. Earlier this year, Tesla confirmed it would buy nickel from Vale.
It is reported that Tesla also submitted a new lobbying goal, which reads as follows: “Seek government support to facilitate its cooperation with provinces on licensing timeframes; pass more competitive approvals compared to other manufacturing locations. time frame to improve Canada’s competitiveness and ability to attract capital; while working with the government to identify incentives to further increase Canada’s attractiveness.” Tesla also met with François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s federal minister for innovation, science and industry. .
Image credit: Tesla
Tesla may also be interested in manufacturing batteries or battery materials in Canada and securing local resources. Tesla and many other automakers have turned to Canada’s mineral resources to secure the supply of raw materials to make batteries and support their plans to ramp up electric vehicle production. In terms of battery materials, Tesla needs a lot of graphite to produce each electric car.
Recently, Tesla visited the graphite mine and processing plant of Canadian graphite company Nouveau Monde Graphite in Quebec. It is reported that Nouveau Monde is developing a graphite mine and processing plant to provide automotive and battery manufacturers with the key material for making battery anodes.
Nouveau Monde Graphite’s Matawinie project in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Quebec, Canada, believes it is sitting on the largest graphite deposit in North America.
In addition to mining graphite, Nouveau Monde Graphite is building a large battery anode material plant, the Bécancour Battery Material Plant. The plant is located in Bécancour, Quebec. Bécancour is also known as the “Battery Valley of Quebec” due to the recent significant investments made in battery materials by companies such as General Motors and Livent.
Nouveau Monde Graphite claims that it can produce a 99.95% pure spherical graphite product that will be cheaper and cleaner than synthetic graphite from Asia. Synthetic graphite often requires fossil fuels in the conversion process. The company is using clean hydropower in Quebec to produce its anode material and plans to use electric vehicles to run its mining operations.