The US-Japan critical minerals agreement was tailored to preserve Tesla's tax credits
Sam Jaffe · Update: What the new Treasury rules mean for EV supply chains · Dec 7, 2023 · at 41:28
Battery market expert Sam Jaffe discusses how U.S. trade policy and Treasury classifications allowed Tesla's Japanese-sourced cathode supply chain to qualify for subsidies.
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“Essentially, my conspiracy theory, Is that essentially this was a bone that was thrown to Tesla. Because Tesla makes its battery cells in North America with Panasonic. It makes some of its materials in North America. The electrolyte is made here, the separator, the cans, some other things are made in North America. But the cathode, which is by far the most expensive part of the battery, is made in Japan by Sumitomo Middles Mining. And by sneaking this free trade agreement in, they allowed Tesla to qualify for the components and the, I'm sorry, they allowed them to qualify for the strategic minerals portion of the EV tax credit that otherwise they wouldn't have if Japan wasn't allowed.”
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