Unlucky. It’s not just lithium either. Nickel prices are going crazy as supply problems loom. The notion of EVs competing on price with fuel burners any time soon is receding fast, if not dead in the water.
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Soaring lithium prices are threatening energy transition efforts as EV battery makers will be forced to hike the prices for their products by as much as 25 percent, Morgan Stanley has warned.

Over the past 12 months, the bank said, as quoted by Bloomberg, the price of lithium carbonate, which is a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries, has jumped five times.

This may force EV manufacturers to hike prices by up to 15 percent, hurting demand, reports OilPrice.com.

The news comes at a bad time for EVs. Rising retail fuel prices in some parts of the world, such as the United States, are driving higher EV demand, but carmakers are already finding it hard to satisfy it amid persistent supply chain problems and the rising prices of most raw materials.

The conclusions of Morgan Stanley analysts echo those of a Chinese EV manufacturer. Earlier this week, Li Auto Inc’s chief executive Li Xiang said on social media that “The cost of batteries in the second quarter rose by a very ridiculous amount.”

Full report here.

via Tallbloke’s Talkshop

March 25, 2022, by oldbrew

Lithium price surge ‘jeopardizes energy transition efforts’