Stellantis signs lithium hydroxide supply agreement with CTR

Gasgoo — Stellantis and Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) announced on June 2 that they have signed a binding supply agreement that will see CTRsupply battery-grade lithium hydroxide forelectric vehicles produced by Stellantis in North America.

During the 10-year agreement period, CTR will supply Stellantis with up to 25,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per year.In late 2021, Stellantis had announced a similar supply deal to support its car production in Europe.

Carlos Tavares, chief executive of Stellantis, said, “We are delivering on our aggressive EV production plans by securing strong, competitive and low-carbon lithium supplies from partners around the world.”

Image credit: Stellantis

CTR's Hell's Kitchen project in Imperial County, California will utilize renewable energy and steam to recover lithium from geothermal brine to produce battery-grade lithium products in a complete closed-loop process without evaporating brine pools, Mining open pit mines and processing fossil fuels.CTR will produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide, lithium carbonate, and geothermal energy in Imperial County, California, with a resourcecapacity ofmore than 300,000 tons per year.

Rod Colwell, CEO of CTR, said, “Our final supply agreement with Stellantis sets a new benchmark for the U.S. auto industry. The clean lithium we produce using renewable energy helps to further reduce the carbon content of the battery supply chain, resulting in cleaner production cars and reduce our environmental impact. We look forward to a strong and successful relationship with Stellantis.”

As part of its "Dare Forward 2030" strategic plan, Stellantis announced plans to reach annual global sales of 5 million pure electric vehicles by 2030, with all vehicles sold in Europe being pure electric models, and of all vehicles sold in the US 50% are pure electric models.Stellantis also increased planned battery capacity from 140 GWh to around 400 GWh, supported by five European and North American battery manufacturing plants and additional supply contracts.