Musk and Tesla break ground on Texas refinery

Massive production: A Tesla Model X picks up a passenger during a Tesla event in Palo Alto, California. Musk says the new plant in Texas should produce enough lithium to build about one million EVs by 2025. — Reuters

NEW YORK: Tesla Inc broke ground on a Texas lithium refinery that its chief executive officer Elon Musk says should produce enough of the battery metal to build about one million electric vehicles (EVs) by 2025, making it the largest North American processor of the material.

The facility will push Tesla outside its core focus of building automobiles and into the complex area of lithium refining and processing, a step Musk said was necessary if the auto giant was to meet its ambitious EV sales targets.