"Lithium prices have risen to crazy levels, and Tesla may have to start a large-scale mining and refining business directly, unless cost pressures ease." Lithium prices have soared 490% in the past year, and musk tweeted on April 8 that he intends to enter lithium mining.
Tesla delivered 936,000 electric vehicles worldwide in 2021 and 310,000 in the first quarter of this year, a new high. However, Bloomberg New Energy Outlook estimates that 1 million electric vehicles will enter the market every month in the second half of 2022, and Tesla's production capacity is still unable to meet the rapid growth of market demand. At a time when Tesla is fully expanding production capacity, soaring lithium prices have become a "roadblock". Musk said that lithium ore resources are not lacking, almost everywhere on the earth, but the speed of mining and refining is too slow.
This is not the first time Tesla has intended to enter the lithium industry, in 2020 Tesla has won the lithium mining rights in Nevada.
However, Musk also often makes unreliable remarks, such as self-driving, colonization of Mars and so on. So, how are these Flags that Musk has set up today?
Colonizing Mars, "Star Chain": Rushing towards the target
In 2009, Musk announced plans for Mars colonization: "If we keep the cost of everyone moving to Mars at around $2 million, we can create a big market." It is estimated that 10,000 to 20,000 people on Earth are willing to migrate to other planets, and people do not have to eat and drink to buy houses on the earth, and the money saved can be used to migrate to space. ”
In January 2020, Musk announced that he would lead 1 million people to mars by 2050.
Musk said humans will land on Mars in 2029.
On March 17, 2022, Musk said in response to a question from others on Twitter that humans will land on Mars in 2029.
On April 8, the Dragon spacecraft was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket. Xinhua News Agency (Courtesy of NASA)
On April 8, 2022, the world's first "all-private" aerospace team organized by a private company was launched aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station. In addition to one former astronaut, the other three are American entrepreneur Larry Connor, Canadian businessman Mark Passy, and Israeli investor Iltan Stibi. The three passengers reportedly paid $55 million each for the space trip.
Astronaut photo Source: SpaceX
Although the $55 million flight to the International Space Station is still far from the $2 million goal of moving to Mars, fortunately, there are still 28 years to go for Musk to achieve his goal.
In 2015, Musk announced plans to launch 12,000 satellites into Earth orbit between 2019 and 2024 to build a "starlink" network to provide high-speed Internet access from space to Earth.
On May 23, 2019, SpaceX used the Falcon 9 rocket to send the first batch of 60 StarLink satellites into orbit, and the StarLink program was officially launched. As of March 2022, SpaceX has launched more than 2,000 Starlink satellites, providing Internet access to 250,000 users in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico.
However, on March 29, Musk said that the "Starlink" plan is expected to achieve more than 4200 Starlink satellite operations in 18 months, accounting for about 2/3 of all active satellites on Earth. If, according to his expectations, a total of 4,200 satellites will be launched by the end of September 2023, it will be difficult to launch 7,800 satellites in the remaining 15 months and realize the Flag established that year.
Self-driving, electric trucks: Blowing a little too much
In January 2016, Musk said that in 24 to 36 months, Tesla could technically achieve "fully autonomous" or "driverless": "In two years, you will be able to 'summon' your car across this country." ...... If you're in New York and your car is in Los Angeles, it'll drive all the way to find you. And your car can automatically charge itself on the road. ”
Musk said at the time: "I may be a little optimistic about this. "Now it seems that he is really too optimistic. In early 2021, Tesla legal counsel Williams admitted that Tesla's technology is not strictly an autopilot system, but L2 level driving (partial driving automation). By August 2021, the FSD has promised to allow vehicles to automatically change lanes, navigate on highways, enter and exit parking spaces, and automatically drive from parking spaces to the owner's location at a slower pace, known as the "summon" function.
Electric semi-trailer truck Semi Source: World Wide Web
In November 2017, Musk unveiled its first electric semi-trailer, the Semi, which accelerates from 0 to 96 km/h in just 5 seconds in an empty-loaded rear trailer-free state, far exceeding the performance of traditional heavy-duty trucks. It is said that the Semi has a measured range of about 800 kilometers on the highway, can travel 644 kilometers after 30 minutes of charging, and will be officially put into production in 2019, with a deposit of $5,000 per truck.
However, after several delays, Musk declared at the 2021 Tesla shareholder meeting that he hopes Semi will be mass-produced in 2023.
Bitcoin car buying: really unreliable
On February 8, 2021, Tesla announced the purchase of $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. On March 24, Musk announced that Tesla accepts Bitcoin payments. On May 13, Musk announced that Tesla would stop accepting bitcoin payments due to bitcoin mining polluting energy.
After every time Musk's remarks are released, the price of Bitcoin will fluctuate greatly. After February 8, the price of Bitcoin soared by $10,000. On May 13, the price of Bitcoin plummeted by $10,000. On July 22, Musk retweeted a video of his own "spitting" interview on social media, in which Musk complained: "Tesla's bank deposits in Europe have fallen into negative interest rates... We will definitely transfer it to Bitcoin. As soon as this statement came out, the price of Bitcoin rose by 8.17% in 24 hours and returned to $30,000.
Musk
In those years, Musk's Flags were on the way to cashing in, some were far from being realized, and some were very unreliable. In your opinion, will Tesla's ambition to enter lithium mining come true?
(Public Network, Poster News Editor, Jiang Hui, Comprehensive Xinhua News Agency, China Economic Network, Science and Technology Daily, etc.)