Tesla hopes to persuade the US government to continue to waive tariffs on graphite imported from China to the US. It would be one thing if Tesla were just looking for a cheaper option. However, the electric car manufacturer said it could not obtain key materials anywhere else.

Tesla pointed out that the graphite tariff will have a negative impact on the cost of automakers' batteries, which will obviously affect the prices of their cars. For those who don't know, a large part of the price of any electric car is due to its battery pack. Tesla explained through Electrek:

"Tesla supports the re-exclusion of artificial graphite from the Section 301 tariffs. Tesla has passed the information provided in this request to prove that in addition to the specifications and capacity required for Tesla to manufacture electric car batteries in the United States, the current It is not possible to provide artificial graphite outside of its current suppliers and China."

As the Biden government claims to take measures to curb climate change and said it needs to take measures to promote and incentivize the adoption of electric vehicles, it should be worried that the world's leading electric vehicle manufacturer may get into trouble due to graphite tariffs. Tesla is also a major consumer of American batteries, so it will be affected more than any competitor, at least for now.

According to Electrek, Tesla has submitted three documents to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, hoping to continue to exempt graphite tariffs. These applications apply to natural graphite (in powder form), artificial graphite (in powder form) and artificial graphite (in powder form or flake form). 

According to reports, the anode of a Tesla battery relies on a large amount of graphite. Work is currently underway to purchase more graphite in North America. More specifically, Nouveau Monde Graphite's project in Quebec, Canada is the leader of this work.

Electrek pointed out that Tesla is also working to replace graphite with silicon. It said it is working with a start-up company it has acquired, which is experimenting with new chemicals.

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