GM's South Korea unit builds about 600,000 vehicles a year, shipping many to the United States including the popular Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV, and employs about 12,000 people.
Albemarle Corp and other traditional lithium producers say they have studied DLE technologies but feel they will not go mainstream until later this decade, given worries about high energy and water use.
A Volkswagen spokesperson confirmed Diess' position that Tesla and others' presence in Germany heightened the urgency of transitioning to EVs, but denied that specific calculations had been made on how many jobs could be lost in the process.
A global shortage of semiconductors, triggered partly by surging demand for laptops and other electronic products during the pandemic, has shuttered some auto production lines globally this year. Hyundai temporarily suspended some factories.
NXP Chief Executive Kurt Sievers said the company intended to focus on key areas where more chips are going into cars and where NXP believes it can hold a market position at least twice that of any competitor.
The latest funding comes on the heels of a $160 million round in August that boosted the companys valuation to $890 million, according to investor website PitchBook.
Tesla boss Elon Musk took to Twitter on Monday to say that his company had not signed a contract with Hertz, spurring a brief halt in Tesla's stock rally.
