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Tesla Motors  to build a $5-billion lithium-ion battery Gigafactory somewhere in the southwestern United States.

By 2020, the Gigafactory will have the capacity to produce 50 times the amount of batteries shipped in Tesla cars in 2013 – and 20 times the total amount of electric vehicles sold last year.

Graphite is a key component in lithium-ion batteries for cars, not to mention in electronic gadgets such as the iPhone. Each electric car contains about 110 pounds of graphite.

So demand for graphite is already high. But with the giant Gigafactory coming on line in 2017, it’s going to boost demand for graphite even more.

Read more at: http://www.trefis.com/stock/bldp/articles/231762/tesla-gigafactory-is-great-news-for-the-graphite-industry/2014-03-25