Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

JKenH

Rising lithium prices risk pushing electric car dreams off the road

Quite a long article in the Telegraph about lithium supplies. One or two quotes below.

Pricing and analysis firm Benchmark Mineral Intelligence estimates lithium carbonate prices could push up the production costs of electric batteries, especially mass-market models, by 16pc or more.

Lithium carbonate, which is often used to make cheaper electric cars, is up 289pc so far this year to about $24,000 per tonne, while lithium hydroxide, used in longer-range motors, is up 192pc to about $26,000 per tonne, according to figures from Benchmark.

And as its price rises, the portion of a car’s cost from lithium has gone from 1.5pc to 4pc since the start of the year, according to Moores.

A limiting factor for battery makers is that while a gigafactory can be built in a couple of years, it will immediately need a source of the metal. A new mine, however, requires five to seven years before production can begin.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/12/02/rising-lithium-prices-risk-pushing-electric-car-dreams-road/

Coastalwatch

Oh Dear, The Grim Reaper strikes again!

JKenH

https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/

silverwhistle

JKenH said:

If all the government officials responsible for the change over were made to drive electric cars something might get done. 

Change that to government ministers and MPs and I'd agree with you. Some officials may be obstructive but it's political will that is needed, and attention to detail that seems beyond this government.

JKenH

silverwhistle said:

JKenH said:

If all the government officials responsible for the change over were made to drive electric cars something might get done. 

Change that to government ministers and MPs and I'd agree with you. Some officials may be obstructive but it's political will that is needed, and attention to detail that seems beyond this government.

By ‘government officials’ I was intending to include those from the PM down who are involved in writing strategic plans, green papers white papers etc  to formulate and implement policy. So include MPs, civil servants, special advisers. So can we agree to agree (for once😀)?

Coastalwatch

Great to see such an ambitious facility created here in the UK, I certainly wish them every success but do wonder if, or how the economics may work out until sufficient numbers of each are submitted for conversion. Any work created in the UK must be absolutely applauded as it was only yesterday that a train with capacity for fifty plus containers arrived at the Port of Felixstowe with no more than ten on board. When heading in the opposite direction they are normally fully loaded suggesting something of an imbalance between imports and exports!

Lunaz announces new EV conversion facility in Buckinghamshire

British company Lunaz announced a 400% increase in its re-manufacturing and electrification capacities in Silverstone, Buckinghamshire. The new facility is planned to open with 300 technicians and engineers in 2022.

The new facility will be the global headquarters and R&D hub for Lunaz which upcycles and re-engineers specialist industrial fleet vehicles to factory new standard and converts them to the Lunaz proprietary electric powertrain. The new facility will have the capacity for up to 1,110 remanufactured and electrified vehicles per year and will be the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom so far.

The vehicles announces thus far to be available for conversion by Lunaz include classic cars such as the Range Rover, Rolls Royce and, most recently, the Aston Martin DB6. New to the lineup is an EV refuse truck, which Lunaz says can save fleets with up to 40% on prices over new EV equivalents.

https://www.electrive.com/2021/12/02/lunaz-announces-new-ev-conversion-facility-in-buckinghamshire/

Coastalwatch

Not sure if this quite the right thread for this post as it certainly covers areas other than just EV's but Semiconductors have been a hot topic in recent times, usually due to their availability, or rather lack of, especially with ot regard vehicle manufacture. This new development however, is  more efficient than other sulitium substrates(whatever they are) and increasing the range of EV's. I could find no information on what the percentage increase might be.

Bosch launches semiconductor production in Germany

After several years of development, Bosch in Reutlingen has now started large-scale production of power semiconductors made of silicon carbide (SiC). In parallel, however, the further development of the semiconductors and the expansion of production capacities are already underway.

The start of production of SiC semiconductors is not a reaction to the current chip shortage, but is due to the trend towards electromobility: Semiconductors based on silicon carbide are more efficient than those made from other sulitium substrates. If they are installed in the power electronics of an electric drive system, for example, the higher semiconductor efficiency increases the range of the electric vehicle without having to install a larger battery. In addition, faster charging processes become possible.

https://www.electrive.com/2021/12/02/bosch-launches-semiconductor-production-in-germany/

Martyn1981

Article here on how the US is lagging behind on EV's. I think 2022 will be important, and we'll get to see if the US follows a similar grwoth curve to Europe/China and is just a couple of years behind, or if EV growth is much more linear in the US, which is understandable given their cheap gas prices and mixed messages on emissions and vehicle efficiency.

Even if the US only grows from 4% to 6% in 2022, then that still means 100% can be reached by the end of the decade with consistent 50% growth in EV's. Just need some consistency going forward.

US lags in electric vehicle sales despite Biden administration’s push

The Biden administration, in the midst of a major push to encourage the take-up of electric vehicles, has been provided a sobering reminder of how badly the US is lagging in the adoption of zero-emission cars.

The White House has set a goal for electric vehicles to make up 50% of all new car sales by the end of this decade in order to slash planet-heating emissions and help avert disastrous climate change.

But a new report has found that electric cars will make up just 4% of American sales in 2021, compared with 9% in China and 14% of new sales in Europe.

shinytop

Martyn1981 said:

Article here on how the US is lagging behind on EV's. I think 2022 will be important, and we'll get to see if the US follows a similar grwoth curve to Europe/China and is just a couple of years behind, or if EV growth is much more linear in the US, which is understandable given their cheap gas prices and mixed messages on emissions and vehicle efficiency.

Even if the US only grows from 4% to 6% in 2022, then that still means 100% can be reached by the end of the decade with consistent 50% growth in EV's. Just need some consistency going forward.

US lags in electric vehicle sales despite Biden administration’s push

The Biden administration, in the midst of a major push to encourage the take-up of electric vehicles, has been provided a sobering reminder of how badly the US is lagging in the adoption of zero-emission cars.

The White House has set a goal for electric vehicles to make up 50% of all new car sales by the end of this decade in order to slash planet-heating emissions and help avert disastrous climate change.

But a new report has found that electric cars will make up just 4% of American sales in 2021, compared with 9% in China and 14% of new sales in Europe.

I think someone hre mentioned that California was miles ahead of other states.  Any idea why and could others learn from them?

Martyn1981

shinytop said:

Martyn1981 said:

Article here on how the US is lagging behind on EV's. I think 2022 will be important, and we'll get to see if the US follows a similar grwoth curve to Europe/China and is just a couple of years behind, or if EV growth is much more linear in the US, which is understandable given their cheap gas prices and mixed messages on emissions and vehicle efficiency.

Even if the US only grows from 4% to 6% in 2022, then that still means 100% can be reached by the end of the decade with consistent 50% growth in EV's. Just need some consistency going forward.

US lags in electric vehicle sales despite Biden administration’s push

The Biden administration, in the midst of a major push to encourage the take-up of electric vehicles, has been provided a sobering reminder of how badly the US is lagging in the adoption of zero-emission cars.

The White House has set a goal for electric vehicles to make up 50% of all new car sales by the end of this decade in order to slash planet-heating emissions and help avert disastrous climate change.

But a new report has found that electric cars will make up just 4% of American sales in 2021, compared with 9% in China and 14% of new sales in Europe.

I think someone hre mentioned that California was miles ahead of other states.  Any idea why and could others learn from them?

There's a saying in the US that where California leads, the rest of the US will follow. So Cali's EV sales are important to watch.

One of the reasons Cali is ahead is because they decided to set their own emissions standards for vehicles and fleet sales about 50 yrs ago. Their right to do this was rubber stamped by the President every 6 months until Trump took charge. The problem with Cali having a higher standard is that it forces companies to produce cleaner cars to raise their fleet standard as they can't risk losing Cali sales (about 10% of the US), nor afford to build to two separate standards. Trump spotted this when he decided to reduce the CAFE (corporate average fuel efficiency) targets.

Cali is now seen as being greener minded, but part of the problem going back was simply the issue of smog and air quality, and trying to deal with that issue.

If we look to the EV rollout in Cali, then things look much brighter, with more of an exponential growth similar to Europe and China. But as I mentioned if the US 'only' grows to 6% next year, then that still hides the fact that ~100% could be theoretically reached in 2030, just ithat level of growth is sustained.

It may seem odd, but next year, sales of 4%, 5%, 6%, or 8% might tell us a whole lot more than we realise, as linear v's exponential growth is far less noticeable in the early stages.