Battery manufacturers have a choice to make in chemistry design between using natural or synthetic graphite, and there are several factors to consider in the decision. Natural graphite is cheaper and usually results in a marginally higher (<2%) specific capacity than synthetic graphite. It has historically been far less carbon intensive (4x) due to synthetic graphite’s high dependence on electricity costs and oil feedstock. Why is it then, that despite these pitfalls, Tesla looks to be moving towards synthetic graphite for use within its US-based 4680 battery cell production? And what does this mean for the supply of needle coke (synthetic graphite’s primary raw material feedstock) which comes primarily from oil and coal tar pitch, production processes made increasingly redundant…