Some news that you may have missed is that an increasing number of car manufacturers will stop producing ICE vehicles in the next decade. Like it or not, this is going to happen. It doesn't matter what your beliefs regarding emissions savings are. i have my own personal views regarding this topic that will upset and annoy quite a few people. "The physics don't doesn't stack up"??? Have you never seen an EV travel down a road? They do exist and work. Some people love them. Maybe try it out yourself. I haven't, but sounds like they provide a nice quite ride. A car is a car though. The difference is that EV are becoming fashionable in addition to the claims that they can help save the planet. My view is that nothing can save the planet. CO2 emissions are driven by consumption which in turn requires energy production. Reducing emissions within the time frames being targetted is not possible. It took 50 years or more to build the energy infrastructure that the world's industrial base is built on. We have more and more "stuff" that requires ever more electricity generation. Now also EVs to charge in addition to a tv in every room in the house, etc., etc.. To replace just about all base load CO2 emmitting power generation with renewables is too big a task to achieve worldwide on the scale required to meet targets. The only way to reduce your CO2 emissions by 50% just about is to consume 50% less of everything. If you drove your car 6 days in the week, then you should be allowed only 3 days driving. If the average house had 6 rooms in the past, then in future it should be limited to only 3 rooms, if you used to have 3 meals a day, then you should in future only have 1.5 meals a day. I don't most think people are prepared to give up their "luxuries" to save the planet. The whole exercise is a waste of time unless someone can invent a giant CO2 sucking machine. Oh, we have that in the form of rainforests, but we are destroying those. No real effort to stop the destruction. Lots of unused open space in the Sahara desert and inland Australia. Need a few nuclear reactors or solar plants and desalination plants to create fresh water to pump inland to these areas and then plant rain forests. That will make everyone feel good. Anyway. In the meantime there are waiting lists streching months if not years for EVs. Demand forecasts for EV sales have only been increased for future years, meaning actual demand is continuing exceed even increased forecasts. Is the boom over? Not yet. GS said it was over earlier this year. Clearly had been wrong. Now they are saying 2023 is the year when lithium prices will tumble. There are rumours that share prices my be downgraded in the near term. The reality is that lithium prices are still in an upward trend due to shortages despite the assesments that a collapse is imminent. We have been been here before.
Do yourself a favour if you believe the lithium boom is over and listen to the Tianqi Lithium CEO laugh at the GS report during questions after their listing in Hong Kong in July. I don't believe much has changed since then. The CEO literally laughs(at 2:40) at the suggestion that supply will exceed demand any time soon
So take your pick: believe some investment bank analyst sitting in an office tower somewhere he doesn't see the light of day or believe an industry insider that is planning to increase production capacity by 150% over the next 2-3 years.
Whenever in doubt about the boom, then go back and listen to the interview and laugh again!!!
PLS Price at posting:
$4.83 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)