The world’s fifth-largest automaker Stellantis—manufacturer of 14 makes, including Jeep, Maserati, and Chrysler—will become the second-largest shareholder of Australian lithium miner Vulcan Energy Resources.
To fuel its ongoing electric vehicle sales, the carmaker will pay $76 million (US$52.45 million) to acquire an eight percent stake in Vulcan.
The move comes as electric automakers explore ways to secure upstream supply chains amid soaring lithium prices—lithium hydroxide is critical for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries.
Vulcan has plans to produce lithium hydroxide from brine fields in the Upper Rhine Valley in Germany using geothermal energy, which it says will leave a “net-zero carbon footprint.”…