{"id":19217,"date":"2023-04-21T12:55:35","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T12:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/factbox-lithium-key-element-for\/"},"modified":"2023-04-21T12:58:55","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T12:58:55","slug":"factbox-lithium-key-element-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/factbox-lithium-key-element-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Factbox-Lithium key element for electric vehicle ramp up"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Reuters) – Chile, the world’s second largest lithium producer, said it plans to transfer control of the production of the mineral essential for electric vehicle (EV) batteries to a new state-owned company.<\/p>\n

Here are key facts about lithium and EVs:<\/p>\n

WHAT IS LITHIUM?<\/p>\n

The silvery-white element is the lightest metal and highly reactive, giving it strong energy storage potential per unit of weight. <\/p>\n

This makes the alkali metal the mainstream choice for EV batteries, where high energy density is key to enabling long distances between charging. <\/p>\n

WHERE IS LITHIUM FOUND? <\/p>\n

Australia is the world’s largest lithium producer, but Chile has by far the largest known reserves. Other countries with major deposits are Argentina, China and the United States.<\/p>\n

IS LITHIUM EXPENSIVE?<\/p>\n

Lithium is abundant, but it takes substantial funding to extract it from ore or brine. The price has seen boom-bust cycles in recent years as producers have ramped up production to benefit from rising prices, but then created a glut.<\/p>\n

Strong output and weak demand for EVs in China has depressed prices in recent months. Battery grade lithium prices touched record levels of $85,000 a tonne in December, but have slumped by nearly 50% since then. That price is still relatively high, around double the price in October 2021.<\/p>\n

CAN WE PRODUCE BATTERIES WITHOUT LITHIUM?<\/p>\n

A range of batteries that need less or no lithium have been under development and the most advanced is the sodium-ion battery, which China’s CATL plans to begin producing this year.<\/p>\n

The materials to make sodium-ion batteries are much cheaper, but the batteries have a lower energy storage capacity, meaning more frequent charging, and break down faster than lithium-ion batteries. <\/p>\n

Another alternative battery replaces lithium with magnesium, but those are still in the research phase.<\/p>\n

While alternatives may take hold in the long-term, the efficiency and proven technology of batteries using lithium mean that in the short to medium term, lithium will remain a key material for EV batteries, analysts say. <\/p>\n

WHAT TYPES OF EV BATTERIES ARE THERE?<\/p>\n

EV battery makers have developed multiple types of lithium battery products. A battery is charged and discharged by lithium ions moving between the negative anode and the positive cathode electrodes.<\/p>\n

Other key metals used in EV batteries are cobalt, nickel phosphate and manganese. <\/p>\n

HOW MUCH IS LITHIUM DEMAND EXPECTED TO RISE?<\/p>\n

EVs are a key part of the plan to meet zero carbon goals to curb climate change, so lithium demand has been rising. <\/p>\n

A lithium-ion EV battery pack on average contains about 8 kg of lithium and about 2 billion EVs need to be on the road by 2050 for the world to meet net zero goals, according to the International Energy Agency. <\/p>\n

Lithium demand is expected to balloon to 3 million tonnes a year by 2030 from only 300,000 tonnes in 2020, according to Bank of America analysts.<\/p>\n

\n

(Reporting by Eric Onstad; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)<\/p>\n

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(Reuters) – Chile, the world’s second largest lithium producer, said it plans to transfer control of the production of the mineral essential for electric vehicle (EV) batteries to a new state-owned company. Here are key facts about lithium and EVs: WHAT IS LITHIUM? The silvery-white element is the lightest metal and highly reactive, giving it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":19218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-business"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3K0GO-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19219,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19217\/revisions\/19219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}