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be for fun and leisure, while the shuttles
will provide most daily transportation.
He said China could ban sale of gas cars
by 2030 and this would mean the largest
car manufacturer in world would export
only EVs to the US and Europe. For other
countries to compete, they must also
manufacture EVs. Another push to EVs is
coming from towns that use "punishment"
policies, for example, only allowing EVs to
drive in a city centre.
In the area of technology, Fisker pre-
dicts 20% of all vehicles will be "plug-in"
in about 10 years. He would like to see
manufacturers collaborate by sharing com-
ponents to get prices down. In the future,
said Fisker, all EV batteries will have about
the same power so car manufacturers will
have to find other ways define their brand
to attract and excite consumers.
A SNAPSHOT SUMMARY
Miller concluded that developments in
battery technology will improve range,
weight, and cost, but graphite will remain
a central component of advanced lithium-
ion chemistries for at least the next 5-10
years. Silicon could play a crucial role in
improving energy density, but commer-
cialization will take time.
Solid-state batteries are the natural suc-
cessor to advanced lithium-ion and we
could see a gradual replacement of graph-
ite-based anodes in high-end applications.
Solid-state batteries, however, are a long
way from production. Cost and safety con-
cerns remain paramount in adopting new
technologies and graphite will continue to
play a major role in anode development.
For the lithium market, according to
Leyland, confusion about supply and price
reigns in 2018. The "oversupply myth" is
creating market confusion, and stock prices
for majors and juniors are impacted. Caspar
Rawles, an analyst at Benchmark, noted the
shift towards lithium-hydroxide intensive
cathodes is under way. Forty-four percent
of megafactory cathodes will need this as
raw material by 2018 (534,000 tonnes).
Lithium carbonate will still be the number
one in-demand product in 2018 and cobalt
demand will continue to surge.
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BATTERY MINERALS
