German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is hoping his trip to Latin America over the weekend will help Berlin secure additional supplies of the lithium that car giants like Mercedes-Benz Group and Volkswagen need for their electric-vehicle batteries.
Chile is the world’s second-largest supplier of lithium after Australia, and much of its output is currently gobbled up by China. Scholz, who met with Chilean President Gabriel Boric on Sunday in Santiago, wants a larger share for Europe’s biggest economy, according to people familiar with the plans.
Part of Germany’s strategy to get Chile on board is to have more of the production process based locally and to help make extraction and processing less damaging to the environment, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.