U.S. 48 EV Highway Corridors. Popular Mechanics.
Popular Mechanics reports that we have another catalyst for electric cars: U.S. government will build 48 electric vehicles highway corridors. Tesla builds its own Supercharger Network and will start now new coast-to-coast Supercharger route. Now we will have enough places to charge them all. The main benefit of moving into the EV age is that we have the major part of the infrastructure in place already. Power cables and even electric sockets are literally on every corner. Now we will have the ability to charge our electric cars fast.
We have the epic convergence of the dramatic decrease in cost of renewable power like Solar and Wind and our ability to store Energy with cheap lithium batteries. The cost of Lithium Batteries is going down 16% every year, according to Bloomberg. We will have GM Bolt this month coming out from production lines and Tesla Model 3 later: two first electric cars priced below $40k with 200 miles of range. Even now electric cars are cleaner than ICE ones and they will be even better with exponentially growing part of the Energy Mix supplied by renewable power generation. Now we will be able to charge mass market electric cars for the long distances as well. Lithium is the magic metal at the very heart of this Energy rEVolution.
Electrek. Tesla Coast-to-coast Supercharger route.
International Lithium and Ganfeng: Major Catalyst For Electric rEVolution And Security Of Lithium Supply.
We have discussed before the fast changing geopolitical landscape in the world and why New Energy Plan in China can change the balance in our world's economic system just in a few very short years. For more than 100 years oil was our only major source of energy powering the economic growth. Oil means power and power means oil - this sentence can determine the politics of all 20th century. But not anymore. We are just at the tipping point of the major tectonic shift from the centralized energy systems to the distributed electricity generation and its consumption when we want it. Electricity is the most efficient form of energy known to us. Now, thanks to "The Learning Curve", we can produce it very cheap with solar and wind and we can store it very efficiently using lithium batteries. Cheap lithium batteries change everything here. We are in the catalyst stage of moving from 2 to 7000. 2 is the number of batteries in your farther's first remote control, 7000 is the number of lithium batteries in Tesla Model S.
Tesla is making the headlines demonstrating the potential of lithium technology. Elon Musk has proved that electric cars are just better. Here comes the China's New Energy Plan in the picture as the major driving force for The Switch with its state-level military style planning and execution - you can find more details about it in my previous posts.
Two major Chinese companies Ganfeng Lithium and Tianqi are part of this state-level plan to build the Electric rEvolution from top to bottom, including the secure supply chain for the critical metal Lithium which is at the very heart of this technology. This year they have broken "The Old Lithium Big 3" and now we have "The New Lithium Top 5". Albemarle is in the first place and SQM is holding now to the second. Ganfeng Lithium and Tianqi have pushed FMC into the 5th place and are chasing each other between 3rd and 4th. Ganfeng Lithium is a $4.5 Billion MC company and strategic partner of International Lithium. We were very fortunate after two years of due diligence to strike the major deal with Ganfeng for International Lithium in 2011. This business demands a long term planning and stamina just to stay with the game. This year, after 7 years of building our business, we are celebrating with Ganfeng the 5th anniversary International Lithium's IPO. Read more."
Popular Mechanics:
David Grossman
It's going to get a little easier to be green.
In a step forward for the electric car road trip, the Obama Administration announced plans to create 48 national electric-vehicle (EV) charging networks on nearly 25,000 miles of highways in 35 U.S. states.
The charging stations are required under the 2015 FAST Act. Car manufacturers like Nissan, General Motors, and BMW have agreed to work with public utilities in 28 of those states to fast-track their construction. The network plan is part of the $2.4 billion Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) program that's bundled inside the FAST Act.
As you can see on the map, there are two kinds of projects. Existing (or "signage-ready") EV stations need new highway signs to alert drivers to their existence, "similar to existing signage that alerts drivers to gas stations, food, and lodging," the Department of Transportation says. But most of the work will be on "signage-pending" stations, as the government calls them—chargers that don't exist yet. These stations will be built in states that haven't seen any such EV highway corridors yet, like Minnesota, Missouri, Idaho, Iowa, and Utah.
Of course, the Obama Administration isn't the only one building EV stations. Tesla's Supercharger stations dot the American map, with over 700 in both the United States and Canada.
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