spectras only
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Amazing how many players joining the EV craze. Tesla better ramp up production before the heavy hitters walk over it.
Two million and counting … that’s the number of EVs already on the world’s roads, and we’re just getting started. And the $2 trillion global auto industry has completed a dramatic shift, and the shift depends on cobalt—which makes up some 35 percent of the lithium-ion battery mix.
Every single vehicle manufacturer will have to build their own cobalt pipeline, and at some $60,000 per metric ton, cobalt is the most expensive of the battery metals.
The auto industry is definitively about EVs now, and everyone’s playing a furious game of catch-up with Tesla. Even car shows are all about plugging in now. The shift is irreversible:
• Tesla will pump out 500,000 EVs a year
• General Motors (NYSE:GM) has announced an ‘all-electric’ future, announcing plans to launch 20 EV models by 2023
• Renault is planning to double its EV offerings in the next five years
• VW Group (Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche) plans to invest a whopping $84 billion in EV development (over half going to battery production) and a target of bringing 300 electric vehicle models to market by 2030.
• Ford has the newly created “Team Edison” focusing on EV development, pledging $4.5 billion in investment over five years and 13 new models by 2023.
• Toyata and Mazda are teaming up with Senso parts maker for a new EV tech company, and are slated to select a location for a joint $1.6 billion U.S.-based plant by 2021.
• Volvo is going all electric by 2019 and anticipates selling one million EVs by 2025.
• By 2022, Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, collaboratively, plan to have 12 EVs by 2022.
And those are just the car manufacturers … Battery gigafactories are popping up at an accelerated pace:
• Tesla is ramping up its Nevada battery gigafactory from 35 GwH to ramp up to 150 GwH
• Dyson is building a $1-billion gigafactory
• LG plans to open Europe’s largest EV battery factory in Poland next year
• Panasonic just announced the start of automotive lithium-ion battery production at a plant in Himeji, Japan from 2019 (adding to its existing five plants in Japan, which supply Tesla).
All in all, these immense EV efforts take more cobalt than the world can currently supply. That’s why Volkswagen, for one, has just moved to secure long-term supplies of this vital battery component, seeking a 10-year secured pipeline beginning in 2019, according to Reuters.
The entire car industry is switching to EVs, and planning battery gigafactories to go along with them. According to Forbes, in 20 years, EVs could represent 40% of all car sales.
The shift is comprehensive. It’s complete. The only thing missing? Cobalt. And investors expect what CNBC calls “inexorable” growth in the EV industry to generate a major supply squeeze for cobalt.
#2 China, China, China
Big automakers may be playing catch-up with Tesla, but it’s China that’s the real beast, and it alone will seriously challenge global cobalt supplies. We knew this before, but now it’s becoming even more clear.
Right now, China is the largest consumer of cobalt in the world. In 2016, Chinese cobalt consumption rose by 5.3% year-on-year, hitting 45,900 tons—equal to over 44% of all global consumption. From this year to 2021, China is expected to see a 12% increase in cobalt consumption, on the back of EV and battery growth.
Cobalt spot prices have seen a 150% price surge this year, thanks to the China-led EV growth spurt, and China leads the way with super restrictions on conventional vehicles to crack down on pollution. China is the largest market for plug-ins, and it’s also the largest producer. It’s not just about passenger EVs: It corners the market on commercial EVs and even electric buses.
Two million and counting … that’s the number of EVs already on the world’s roads, and we’re just getting started. And the $2 trillion global auto industry has completed a dramatic shift, and the shift depends on cobalt—which makes up some 35 percent of the lithium-ion battery mix.
Every single vehicle manufacturer will have to build their own cobalt pipeline, and at some $60,000 per metric ton, cobalt is the most expensive of the battery metals.
The auto industry is definitively about EVs now, and everyone’s playing a furious game of catch-up with Tesla. Even car shows are all about plugging in now. The shift is irreversible:
• Tesla will pump out 500,000 EVs a year
• General Motors (NYSE:GM) has announced an ‘all-electric’ future, announcing plans to launch 20 EV models by 2023
• Renault is planning to double its EV offerings in the next five years
• VW Group (Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche) plans to invest a whopping $84 billion in EV development (over half going to battery production) and a target of bringing 300 electric vehicle models to market by 2030.
• Ford has the newly created “Team Edison” focusing on EV development, pledging $4.5 billion in investment over five years and 13 new models by 2023.
• Toyata and Mazda are teaming up with Senso parts maker for a new EV tech company, and are slated to select a location for a joint $1.6 billion U.S.-based plant by 2021.
• Volvo is going all electric by 2019 and anticipates selling one million EVs by 2025.
• By 2022, Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, collaboratively, plan to have 12 EVs by 2022.
And those are just the car manufacturers … Battery gigafactories are popping up at an accelerated pace:
• Tesla is ramping up its Nevada battery gigafactory from 35 GwH to ramp up to 150 GwH
• Dyson is building a $1-billion gigafactory
• LG plans to open Europe’s largest EV battery factory in Poland next year
• Panasonic just announced the start of automotive lithium-ion battery production at a plant in Himeji, Japan from 2019 (adding to its existing five plants in Japan, which supply Tesla).
All in all, these immense EV efforts take more cobalt than the world can currently supply. That’s why Volkswagen, for one, has just moved to secure long-term supplies of this vital battery component, seeking a 10-year secured pipeline beginning in 2019, according to Reuters.
The entire car industry is switching to EVs, and planning battery gigafactories to go along with them. According to Forbes, in 20 years, EVs could represent 40% of all car sales.
The shift is comprehensive. It’s complete. The only thing missing? Cobalt. And investors expect what CNBC calls “inexorable” growth in the EV industry to generate a major supply squeeze for cobalt.
#2 China, China, China
Big automakers may be playing catch-up with Tesla, but it’s China that’s the real beast, and it alone will seriously challenge global cobalt supplies. We knew this before, but now it’s becoming even more clear.
Right now, China is the largest consumer of cobalt in the world. In 2016, Chinese cobalt consumption rose by 5.3% year-on-year, hitting 45,900 tons—equal to over 44% of all global consumption. From this year to 2021, China is expected to see a 12% increase in cobalt consumption, on the back of EV and battery growth.
Cobalt spot prices have seen a 150% price surge this year, thanks to the China-led EV growth spurt, and China leads the way with super restrictions on conventional vehicles to crack down on pollution. China is the largest market for plug-ins, and it’s also the largest producer. It’s not just about passenger EVs: It corners the market on commercial EVs and even electric buses.
