There’s lithium mineral deposits in Nevada?
You can build a huge battery plant, but it’s useless without a reliable source of raw materials.
If I remember right, most of the viable lithium reserves come out of S. America and a few ME countries, along with some deposits in china.
Yeah except that Tesla is apparently not buying its Lithium locally. They are going to import it. The folks that wooed them to build here in the first place are pretty embarrassed that they did not stipulate buying the local as part of their tax breaks and what not.