Elon Musk says Tesla may have to get into the lithium business because costs are so ‘insane’

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is pictured as he attends the start of the production at Tesla’s “Gigafactory” on March 22, 2022 in Gruenheide, southeast of Berlin.

The cost of metal used in manufacturing batteries has gotten so high that it may be possible forTesla to enter the business directly.

There is no shortage of the element itself, as it is almost everywhere on Earth.

The average price of lithium in the last two decades has gone up a lot, and the tech boss was responding to that. The cost of the metal has gone up more than 400% in the last year.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there are many deposits of lithium in the United States.

The lightest metal and the least dense solid element, lithium, is valuable in electric vehicle batteries. The high power-to-weight ratio is important when dealing with transportation.

Musk has raised the idea of mining its own lithium before.

According to Fortune, a deal to buy a lithium mining company fell through in 2020 and that's whenTesla secured its own rights to mine in Nevada.