....thanks to a significant decline in lithium battery cell prices, Chinese EV makers have been able to lower their EV cost of production which enabled them to lower their EV prices substantially for wider adoption in China.
....lower lithium prices helped the EV growth, not EV growth fueling lithium demand to drive higher (lithium) prices, because if the latter is true, then the former is not. And as long as China dominates the lithium supply chain from mine to processing, they would want to hold lithium prices lower for longer. And lithium producers would just have to produce more at lower margins to generate normal returns of capital.
....hence lithium hodlers need to understand that lithium prices would likely stay lower for longer than even most said lithium negative analysts have forecasted. Lithium hodlers need to be satisfied with a more normal ala carte meal not a largesse buffet.
Lithium ion battery prices fall to their lowest point ever - Benchmark @benchmarkmin•
Benchmark Lithium ion Battery Cell prices have fallen to $66.5$/kWh in September (Benchmark’s Global Weighted Average); falling just shy of 20% this year
•The biggest story is LFP falling to below the sixty-dollar mark to $59/kWh driven by rock bottom lithium prices; this is down from $96.2/kWh at the same time in 2023
•LFP prices have been quoted as low as $45/kWh with the lower end of the market in the sub-50-dollar range
When batteries become cheaper, more application emerge - especially the true beginning of the large scale energy storage market in 2024
With key battery raw materials all low, especially lithium, this trend won’t last forever. Controlling the battery supply chain from cell all the way upstream to the mine is crucial to dominance in this lithium ion battery era. This will be one of the biggest talking points at Benchmark Week in LA, 12-14 Nov
