Article - Next year will be huge for EV Europe race catch up, page-21

Thinking that you can define or predict Lithium demand imo is little more than entertainment. The age we have begun has been coined the augmentation age by many, and augmentation demands power storage. Transportation is just the beginning.

Global populations are demanding clean living right now, China is a disaster pollution wise that can only be fixed with EVs, Australia is lagging only because we have wide open spaces and (except M&S) sparse populous by global standards. There will be a huge revolt against fossile fuels once battery tech matures to the point that a critical mass of opinion and culture will make it roar its head, and in some parts of the world the tide has already turned (Swedes have bought almost 50,000 Nissan LEAF cars so far in 2018, 70% of them to first time EV owners, imo they will never go back, just like noone went back to a blackberry)

What has actually held it back so long was the antinuclear environmentalists from the 60s. Power storage seemed pointless when you had to still burn fossil fuels to generate the energy to store. Wind and solar arent reliable when they start to approach more than 25% of supply, because they dont generate consistent supply. Chernobyl and Fukushima havent helped, but in recent times the tide has turned, previously strong opponents of nuclear power have realised they were wrong, Patrick Moore as one example. The way is being paved for a world that burns clean nuclear energy and stores it in Lithium batteries in every shape and size to augment human life in every way imaginable. And I am not just talking about Uranium reactors, India now has the worlds first thorium reactor
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201802261061995444-indias-thorium-draem/

Its still decades away but thorium is much cleaner and is not a fissile material on its own (reaction can easily be stopped and meltdowns are not a risk), so hopefully in another generation the world will run on thorium

Got abit sidetracked, but what Im saying is the global dependance on Lithium will imo be many multiples higher than even the most generous estimates and 100x greater than the most conservative.