Lithium Race: The Market For Electric Cars Is Growing – Especially In China.

Sun & Wind Energy.

  Tesla Model 3 and GM Bolt will bring us mass market for electric cars starting from this year. Apple Electric iCar can change and totally disrupt auto-industry overnight. There are 28 companies making 51 models of electric cars in China already! We have the state-level military plan to build the new strategic industry in China - Electric Cars in action. Why compete with ICE Age dinosaurs if China can leapfrog straight forward into the Next Industrial Energy rEVolution? 75% of Lithium Hydroxide is controlled by China now, it goes into Tesla Motors lithium cells made by Panasonic. Ganfeng Lithium supplies Panasonic with lithium materials as well as Warren Buffett's backed BYD, LG Chem and Samsung among many others. International Lithium is building vertically integrated lithium business with Ganfeng Lithium. 

The Economist On Lithium - This Increasingly Precious Metal Powers Your iPhone, Tesla's Cars And NASA's Mars Rovers. 

  The Economist presents to us very interesting and deeply researched article on Lithium. Now this magic metal will be getting on the investor's radar screens and recent huge price spike in China will be the best advertisement for this Strategic Green Energy Metal. I will provide a few links for your research on what is actually behind this spike and why my outrages Lithium price prediction for 2016 is already so close.
  The key for everybody will be this opening paragraph from The Economist:

"SQM, Chile’s biggest lithium producer, is the kind of company you might find in an industrial-espionage thriller. Its headquarters in the military district of Santiago bears no name. The man who for years ran the business, Julio Ponce, is the former son-in-law of the late dictator, Augusto Pinochet. He quit as chairman in 2015, during an investigation into SQM for alleged tax evasion. (The company is co-operating with the inquiry.) Last month it emerged that CITIC, a Chinese state-controlled firm, may bid for part of Mr Ponce’s controlling stake in SQM, as part of China’s bid to secure supplies of a vital raw material."

  China already controls 75% of Lithium Hydroxide production which is used in Tesla Motors lithium batteries and is the largest Lithium Market in the world, now if CITIC will be able to get hold of that stake in SQM we are all going to see consequences very fast and this spike will become not just "local market disturbance", but the reflection of strategic value of Lithium for the Next Industrial Energy rEVolution. Another key fact for you to ponder: the cost of lithium as material in the lithium battery is below 3%. Read more."

  

My Outrages Lithium Price Prediction Of $15k per MT Of LCE And Joe Lowry On China Lithium Market Upheaval.

Copyright Global Lithium LLC, used with permission.

  Joe Lowry makes very interesting observations about the dynamic in our Lithium Universe. China is the largest Lithium Market in the world now. Security of Lithium Supply becomes the most important element of your business plan, when market is growing exponentially. It is all happening even before Tesla Gigafactory is coming online with other Lithium Megafactories to follow. My prediction about $15k MT LCE prices in China now suddenly does not look totally outrages any more!

"Asia is taking the very important lead in this space as well. China is not only leapfrogging directly into the Lithium Energy Space with Electric Cars and Solar, but building the advanced materials base for this new Energy rEVolution. Panasonic, Nissan, Toyota, NEC, Sony, Samsung, Huyndai, LG Chem and others are staking its own place in electric cars now. China is the largest Lithium Market in the world already, moving to claim the largest Lithium Battery Producer title and Electric Cars in China will become the largest World's EV market early in the next year.

  Listen to that podcast, read the article about LG Chem and do your own research. Numerous companies are building Lithium Batteries facilities now in China: LG Chem, BYD, Boston Power (Ganfeng Lithium has 10% stake), Foxconn, Samsung, A123 - which will exceed even Tesla Gigafactory production capacity! 17 start ups only this year are trying to capitalise in lithium batteries market on the "War on Pollution" announced by China and state-level plan to build new strategic industry - Electric Cars. Read more."

International Lithium Announces Closing of Private Placement, Advances Operations In North America.

ILC President, Kirill Klip comments “International Lithium is beginning a new phase of strategic developments through new potential acquisitions and strategic partnerships. The availability of affordable electric cars is almost here with models like GM’s Bolt and Tesla’s Model 3 coming into production this and next year. This will greatly increase the demand for lithium batteries in North America. Our new strategy recognizes this opportunity and we seek to meet the demand for lithium in North America’s massive automotive markets. Together with Ganfeng Lithium we continue to advance our projects in Argentina and Ireland building on a vertically integrated lithium business in China, the centre of today’s lithium industry where prices for the green energy metal are currently escalating. Newly formed alliances with companies like Pioneer Resources, will help us focus our expertise in recognising opportunities and building up a resource base, while minimising our capital outlay to advance the projects to build the secure supply of lithium for the North American market.” Read more."

Sun And Wind Energy:

The Market For Electric Cars Is Growing – Especially In China.

02.03.2016

The number keeps on increasing! Electric car registrations per year. (Illustration: ZSW)

In 2015, the number of newly registered electric vehicles increased by almost 70% to 550,000 cars. There are now approximately 1.3 million electric cars worldwide. While demand in Germany is still rather low, it is rising sharply in other countries, particularly in China. This is the conclusion reached in a new analysis by the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW)(link is external)**.

In 2014, 330,000 electric cars were sold worldwide, and last year, global sales increased by as much as 68%: there were 550,000 new registrations in 2015. But if anyone thinks that Germany is a pioneer when it comes to ecological cars, then they are sadly mistaken.

Only about 23,500 electric vehicles were sold in Germany. This brings the total number to 55,250. There are already 76,000 electric cars on the roads in France and nearly 130,000 in Japan. The only country lagging behind Germany in the ZSW analysis is the UK. There are all of twenty electric cars less on the roads there than in Germany. However, with more than 28,000 new registrations, the UK is still ahead of Germany in this category by a large margin.

"The 550,000 electric vehicles manufactured last year clearly show that industrialisation is gaining momentum," said Professor Werner Tillmetz, ZSW board member and head of the electrochemical energy technologies division.

USA is in the lead, but China is catching up

The United States has the largest number of electric cars, and this has been true for several years now. There are almost 410,000 electric cars on the roads in the United States. The largest increase in new registrations was recorded in the People's Republic of China, where the number rose by more than 200,000 new vehicles from around 99,000 in 2015 to more than 306,000.

The percentage of electric vehicles compared to vehicles of all types is also interesting. In Norway, 3% of the 2.6 million cars on the roads are already powered by electricity. Every fifth new registration there in 2015 was for an electric vehicle. By comparison, the proportion of electric vehicles in the overall number in Germany is a meagre 0.12%.

Thanks to model variety, domestically manufactured cars are becoming more popular

The researchers also analysed the distribution of vehicle models. At any rate, German manufacturers do not seem to be running out of steam when it comes to electric mobility. A German model, the BMW i3, was among the best-selling electric cars worldwide for the first time in 2015. With a total of 36,550 registered i3s, BMW is nowhere near the most popular model, the Nissan Leaf, of which there are 193,000 on the roads worldwide, but at least it is a start. Tesla's Model S also experienced a surge in new registrations: the total number of new registrations rose from 54,000 in 2014 to nearly 97,000 vehicles per year.

Just as was the case previously in other countries, such as China, Japan or France, a trend towards vehicles from domestic production is now also emerging in Germany. Of the 23,500 electric vehicles sold last year in Germany, approximately half were from German manufacturers, according to ZSW.

"Our calculations show that just 1.7% of the green electricity produced in Germany in 2015 would be sufficient to power one million electric vehicles. And everyone can already use green electricity in Germany for their electric cars. This can bring about an energy turnaround in the transport sector," ZSW researcher Andreas Püttner explained.

**= In the study, scientists at ZSW counted the following vehicles as electric vehicles: battery powered cars, range extenders and plug-in hybrids. The following vehicle types were not counted: motorcycles, lorries, buses, full hybrid vehicles, and mild hybrid vehicles. The analysis is based partly on data from the German Federal Motor Vehicle Transport Authority as well as international authorities and organisations."