BERLIN, March 30 (Xinhua) -- German car manufacturer BMW said Tuesday it would receive lithium from a second supplier, the U.S.-based company Livent, as a multi-year contract worth around 285 million euros (334.5 million U.S. dollars) was concluded.
Livent would supply lithium to BMW battery cell manufacturers from 2022 onwards, according to BMW.
In 2019, BMW had signed a contract for lithium purchase from the hard-rock deposits in Australian mines.
By sourcing lithium from a second supplier, the German carmaker was "technologically, geographically and geopolitically less dependent on individual suppliers," said Andreas Wendt, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, in a statement.
"To minimize the impact on the surrounding ecosystem, most of the brine used is returned directly to the surrounding habitat and not evaporated," which would largely preserve the balance between the brine layers and groundwater layers, BMW noted.
BMW is "accelerating its expansion of e-mobility in the coming years" which would also "increase the need for lithium," a key raw material for the production of battery cells, the carmaker noted.
BMW plans to deliver around two million fully electric vehicles to customers by the end of 2025. (1 euro = 1.17 U.S. dollars) Enditem