Ford Motor Co has signed five definitive supply agreements that will provide it with enough lithium to produce 2 million electric vehicles/year by the end of 2026 and beyond, Kallanish reports.

North Carolina-based Albemarle will furnish Ford with 100,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium hydroxide for about 3m future Ford EV batteries under a five-year agreement that starts in 2026 and runs through 2030. The lithium will come from US lithium supplies or will originate in a country with a US Free Trade Agreement. The lithium will only come from accredited mine operations. The companies will also partner to recycle old lithium-ion batteries.

Quebec-based Nemaska Lithium signed Ford as its first customer and will provide the US automaker with up to 13,000 t/y of lithium hydroxide from its Becancour facility in Quebec over 11 years. The deal also includes spodumene concentrate from the Whabouchi mine in northern Quebec. Nemaska is owned by Livent and Investissement Quebec, the development arm of the Quebec government.

Kansas-based Compass Minerals has signed a deal to supply Ford with battery-grade lithium carbonate from its lithium brine project at the Great Salt Lake in Ogden, Utah. The five-year agreement covers up to 40% of Compass’ planned Phase 1 capacity once production begins. The project is expected to begin commercial production in 2025 with 11,000 t/y of initial production capacity and later produce about 35,000 t/y of lithium carbonate.

EnergySource Minerals, a private California-based company, will supply Ford with lithium hydroxide from its Project ATLiS project in California’s Imperial Valley from geothermal brine. The project is expected to be operational in 2025. It is expected to produce 20,000 t/y of lithium with its proprietary process.

The carmaker also signed a long-term supply agreement with Chile’s SQM for battery-grade lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but the lithium should qualify the EVs for US federal consumer tax credits, the companies say.

The agreements were announced by the companies supplying the lithium and confirmed by Ford at its capital markets event in Dearborn, Michigan. The deals will enable Ford to “fortify and de-risk our plans for sourcing the key minerals we need to make EVs more accessible for our customers longer term,” says Lisa Drake, Ford’s vice president, EV Industrialization, Model e, in a statement.