Resource World Magazine

Resource World - April-May 2018 - Vol 16 Issue 3

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14 www.resourceworld.com A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 1 8 IT'S LIKE A PLOT from Star Wars – a rag tag group of technology rebels, led by Elon Musk (Hans Solo,) fight to displace the domination of polluting ICE (internal com- bustion engine) vehicles. Their weapons are electric cars, which offer the promise of a cleaner, greener future. They aspire to lead mankind to move beyond Earth and go to Mars. Musk recently launched his personal electric car into outer space as payload on the (Millennium) Falcon Heavy rocket to demonstrate his company's new rocket technology. That company is Space Exploration Technologies Corp., aka SpaceX. The car was successfully launched on an orbit going beyond Mars. He has staked his fortune on disrupting the trans- portation sector with a series of brilliant electric vehicles from the Model S, Model X, Model 3, Roadster and Semi Truck. In this article I will set out the case for electric vehicles disrupting the transporta- tion sector in the next 10 years. This will have major implications for the mining sector and related stocks targeting lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, copper and man- ganese. These are commonly referred to as battery metals and minerals or energy met- als and minerals. It has already begun. I will offer a little insight garnered from my experience owning an electric vehicle and give my opinion as to who will win in this epic struggle. What is the case for elec- tric cars achieving galactic domination? The case for disruption of the cur- rent domination of ICE technology by electrics is put forward by Stanford lec- turer and futurist author Tony Seba. (See the video at: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=2b3ttqYDwF0) When electric cars become cheap enough, he suggests that their inherent advantages will cause consumers to shun ICE cars in favour of electrics. Battery costs are falling at about 15% per year and pro- jecting forward three or four years, electric cars will achieve price parity with ICE cars. Once parity is achieved, everyone will buy electric cars, since they have several other advantages: Electric cars are four to five times more efficient than fossil fuel cars because elec- tric motors are 90-95% efficient whereas ICE vehicles, despite 100 years of continu- ous research, development and investment, are only 17-21% efficient. Most of the energy from burning gasoline is wasted as excess heat. Electric cars are more reliable as they have only 20 to 30 moving parts as opposed to some 2,000 moving parts in a typical ICE vehicle. General Motors has a new electric vehicle, the Chevrolet Bolt, which is the most reliable vehicle the company makes. This is not a coincidence but simply the logical result of a simple technology com- peting with a complex technology. Electric vehicles have greater longev- ity. Though the Tesla Model S has only been around about five years, Tesla owners have banded together to plot their mileage against battery degradation in a collective database. Their massive spreadsheet shows that there is virtually no degradation in the CAR WARS The epic struggle of electric cars to overthrow the domination of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars by Alf Stewart

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