...if you don't think China will control the lithium industry, well, think again.
. @stevelevine
: "In January, China’s @catl_official, the world’s largest battery manufacturer, slashed the price of its iron-based battery cells 40% below the global industry average. Western battery industry veterans told me at the time that the price had to be a one-off promotion for CATL’s best customers. It was not possible to make money at such prices, they said. Today, CATL is still advertising the cells at about $56 per kilowatt hour—and it’s become the going rate in China for large lithium-iron-phosphate batteries used in buildings, according to multiple firms that track battery prices, compared with $95/kWh outside China; an electric vehicle battery using LFP would be roughly $10/kWh more. And China’s most efficient battery manufacturers are making a profit on the price, with average costs of $45/kWh, according to @InfoLinkConsult
, a Taiwan-based renewable energy research firm. As they did in January, many Western battery industry hands dismiss the LFP price as reflective of a brutal battery and EV price war in China, and not of the real costs of making the batteries. But they should worry: The LFP business may be evidence that the Chinese battery sector is repeating a phenomenon that has roiled industry after industry—so altering the economics of a product that most Western rivals are unable to compete, and are driven out. Cheaper than nickel-led batteries favored by major non-Chinese carmakers, LFP is the standard in China, used in the majority of Teslas, and is fast becoming more popular in the West."
