Lithium pricing thread, page-81

You know, that is not necessarily a good thing - a "perpetual deficit". Nature might abhor a vacuum but economics certainly detests a perpetual deficit. There are heaps of alternative technologies at varying stages of development. The general assumption is that car manufacturers have gone all in on lithium batteries so for at least the next couple of manufacturing cycles lithium will remain unchallenged. But for instance, Toyota is well advanced with their work with hydrogen cells and this particular Australian government is hell-bent on supporting anything that does not hint at clean energy.

An example of a cataclysmic pivot is the invention of the electric starter. Prior to then EVs were easy to use and convenient while there was a real risk of injury in crank starting a ICE vehicle. The electric starter totally altered that equation. I am not saying the market for lithium will collapse like the market for EVs collapsed in the early 20th century. However say a viable alternative energy source were to promise to take 10-20% of the market share within the next decade then the demand supply curve totally changes. Just be wary of straight line extrapolations.