Tesla to ramp up lithium refinery earlier than planned

According to operations manager Jason Bevan, Tesla’s lithium refinery will come online sooner than expected – namely, as early as the first half of 2024. The manufacturer will ramp up production during the second half of the year. Electrek and Tesmanian both quote Bevan, who was at a local trade show in Texas, where Tesla was looking for employees for the plant.

“We will begin commissioning the assets, roughly the first of next year, and that will continue, in earnest, over the first half of next year. They will start ramping up production the latter half of next year,” Revan said.

When construction kicked off earlier this year, Tesla said it would finish building the lithium refinery in 2024. By 2025, the site near Corpus Christi would produce enough lithium hydroxide for one million electric cars.

According to Bevan, Tesla is already considering expanding the site – hence the need for more employees. “We have property that is well-suited for a future expansion, beyond these first two trains, so I think there is ample opportunity for further economic impact beyond just those direct employees that we hire,” the operations manager said.

There is also news about the Gigafactory in Nevada due to the recruitment drive. According to job offers for, e.g., a “Cell Recycling Operator,” Tesla plans to build its own battery recycling pilot plant there. The same position is open for the night shift. However, details on the scope and schedule for the facility have yet to be made available.

Tesla announced a massive expansion of its Nevada factory in January 2023 with two new production facilities: one for 4680-format battery cells with a capacity of 100 gigawatt hours per year and another for series production of the Tesla Semi electric truck. The EV maker is currently looking to fill numerous positions for the project in Nevada.

electrek.co, tesmanian.com (both lithium refinery), driveteslacanada.ca (Nevada)