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Tesla revisits idea of mining lithium directly as prices continue to rise

Credit: Dirty Tesla

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Tesla seems more serious about entering the lithium mining industry as prices for the mineral — needed to make lithium-ion batteries — continue to rise.

On Saturday, April 9, Tesla CEO Elon Musk commented on the rising price of Lithium. He hinted that Tesla might mine and refine Lithium directly if costs do not improve. 

“The price of Lithium has gone to insane levels! Tesla might really have to get into the mining & refining directly at scale, unless costs improve,” Musk tweeted. “There is no shortage of the element itself, as lithium is almost everywhere on Earth, but [the] pace of extraction/refinement is slow.”

Benchmark lithium prices are at $78,000 per metric ton, up nearly 80% year-to-date. Barron’s estimated that the price for battery materials, in general, has gone up about 60% year-to-date, adding about $2,000 to the price of an electric vehicle. Tesla has been raising the prices of its cars, including the base Model 3, in the United States, China, and other parts of the world.

Tesla considered producing Lithium before. In 2020, Tesla seemed ready to produce Lithium in Nevada. During Battery Day, Elon Musk told shareholders that Tesla acquired rights to 10,000 acres in Nevada, where Lithium could be produced. At the time, Musk claimed that Tesla would produce lithium from clay deposits using an internally-developed process. 

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Over the weekend, Musk did suggest that Tesla has thought of ways to mine and refine Lithium. “We have some cool ideas for sustainable lithium extractions & refinement,” he said.

Since the pandemic started, Tesla has navigated raw material supply challenges well, demonstrating its flexibility and resilience in the EV industry. Lithium demand will continue to grow as more automotive companies produce electric vehicles. Tesla appears prepared for the growth in lithium demand. It has secured lithium supply deals with several companies across the globe, including Liontown Resources and Core Lithium in Australia, and Ganfeng Co Ltd in China. 

Tesla held its Cyber Rodeo grand opening event for Giga Texas last week. Gigafactory Texas will produce the first Tesla vehicles equipped with production 4680 battery cells

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Maria--aka "M"-- is an experienced writer and book editor. She's written about several topics including health, tech, and politics. As a book editor, she's worked with authors who write Sci-Fi, Romance, and Dark Fantasy. M loves hearing from TESLARATI readers. If you have any tips or article ideas, contact her at maria@teslarati.com or via X, @Writer_01001101.

Elon Musk

Tesla Full Self-Driving gets an offer to be insured for ‘almost free’

“If @elonmusk is game, we’d be happy to explore insuring Tesla FSD miles for (almost) free.”

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla Full Self-Driving just got an insurance offer from Lemonade Co-founder and President Shai Wininger that might be too good to pass up, as he wants to insure vehicles on FSD for “almost free.”

Traditionally, Tesla vehicles are slightly more expensive to insure with traditional companies because of higher repair costs that stem from their technology and state-of-the-art structural battery design.

However, the development of the Full Self-Driving suite by Tesla has certainly pulled some tech entrepreneurs and others to believe the vehicles should be much cheaper to insure.

While there are certainly people on both sides of the spectrum, a handful of notable tech figures believe the data shows that Teslas operating on FSD are safer than human drivers.

Tesla Q2 2025 vehicle safety report proves FSD makes driving almost 10X safer

One of the tech figures who believes that is Shai Wininger, President and Co-founder of Lemonade, an insurance company that has nearly two million customers.

On X, Wininger recently announced the direct integration with Tesla vehicles that would roll out to Lemonade customers. The integration would “remove the need for a UBI device in our Pay Per Mile product. This makes activating Lemonade Car on Teslas effortless and lets us cut hardware and shipping costs, helping lower prices for Tesla drivers even further.”

He said the Tesla API complemented Lemonade’s platform because it provides “richer and more accurate driving behavior data than traditional UBI devices.”

He then proposed an idea to CEO Elon Musk, stating that Lemonade would “be happy to explore insuring Tesla FSD miles for (almost) free.”

It would provide Tesla drivers with stable and accurate insurance, while also incentivizing owners to utilize the Full Self-Driving suite for their miles, making the semi-autonomous driving platform extremely cost-effective to use.

Wininger said it would be available in states where Tesla’s in-house insurance program is not available. Tesla Insurance is available in twelve states, and is looking to expand in Florida, as we reported earlier this week. However, it has not expanded to a new state in about three years.

The thought of Lemonade being able to insure FSD miles for almost nothing is an extremely attractive offer from Wininger, and could potentially be a new outlet to make Teslas even less expensive to own and operate throughout their lifetime.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package hits first adversity from proxy firm

ISS said the size of the pay package will enable Musk to have access to “extraordinarily high pay opportunities over the next ten years,” and it will have an impact on future packages because it will “reduce the board’s ability to meaningfully adjust future pay levels.”

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package, which was proposed by the company last month, has hit its first bit of adversity from proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS).

Musk has called the firm “ISIS,” a play on its name relating it to the terrorist organization, in the past.

The pay package aims to lock in Musk to the CEO role at Tesla for the next decade, as it will only be paid in full if he is able to unlock each tranche based on company growth, which will reward shareholders.

However, the sum is incredibly large and would give Musk the ability to become the first trillionaire in history, based on his holdings. This is precisely why ISS is advising shareholders to vote against the pay plan.

The group said that Musk’s pay package will lock him in, which is the goal of the Board, and it is especially important to do this because of his “track record and vision.”

However, it also said the size of the pay package will enable Musk to have access to “extraordinarily high pay opportunities over the next ten years,” and it will have an impact on future packages because it will “reduce the board’s ability to meaningfully adjust future pay levels.”

The release from ISS called the size of Musk’s pay package “astronomical” and said its design could continue to pay the CEO massive amounts of money for even partially achieving the goals. This could end up in potential dilution for existing investors.

If Musk were to reach all of the tranches, Tesla’s market cap could reach up to $8.5 trillion, which would make it the most valuable company in the world.

Tesla has made its own attempts to woo shareholders into voting for the pay package, which it feels is crucial not only for retaining Musk but also for continuing to create value for shareholders.

Tesla launched an ad for Elon Musk’s pay package on Paramount+

Musk has also said he would like to have more ownership control of Tesla, so he would not have as much of an issue with who he calls “activist shareholders.”

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Tesla is adding an interesting feature to its centerscreen in a coming update

In a recent dissection of coding, Tesla hacker green noticed that the company is bringing in screenshare with Software Update 2025.38

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is adding an interesting feature to its center touchscreen in a coming update, according to a noted hacker.

In a recent dissection of coding, Tesla hacker green noticed that the company is bringing in screenshare with Software Update 2025.38. Details on the use case are slim, but he said the feature would export the car screen so it could be viewed remotely.

It would bring up a notification on the screen, along with a four-digit pin that would link the two together:

As previously mentioned, the use case is unclear, but there are some ideas. One of which is for remote support, which is something Apple has used to help resolve issues with its products.

Support staff and employees routinely tap into customers’ screens to help resolve issues, so this could be a way Tesla could also use it.

This seems especially relevant with Robotaxi, as the screen might be a crucial part of resolving customer complaints when there is no employee in the car.

Additionally, it seems as if it will not be exclusive to those owners who have newer vehicles that utilize the AMD chip. Intel will get support with the new feature as well, according to what green has noticed in the coding.

Finally, it could also be used with all sorts of content creation, especially as Full Self-Driving videos and what the vehicle sees in Driver Visualization.

As it is released, Tesla will likely release more information regarding what the screensharing mode will be used for.

For right now, many owners are wondering where it could actually work and what advantages it will offer for owners as well as the company itself.

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