According to a report in Greentech Media, lithium-ion battery production could be constrained in future by available supplies of cobalt, manganese, nickel and lithium. While there is no physical scarcity at this stage, there are supply chain risks that could affect their availability and price. Half the current reserves of cobalt, for example, come from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there is an uncertain legal framework, corruption and a lack of transparency.
Tesla expects to source an increasing amount of the material for their batteries from on-site recycling at their Gigafactory. The lithium content is very small by weight. The cells are mainly composed of nickel and aluminium and to a less extent, cobalt.