" Oil major Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) is in talks with Tesla (TSLA.O), Ford Motor (F.N), Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and other automakers to supply lithium for electric vehicle batteries, Bloomberg Law reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter."
" Extracting lithium from those brines will require Exxon to chose a direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology, something it has not yet done. Additionally, no DLE technology has ever worked at commercial scale, although multiple companies are racing to be the first."