It seems contradictory that Vehicle manufacturers, battery...

It seems contradictory that Vehicle manufacturers, battery manufacturers and commitments made by countries like India and China that the sentiment towards Lithium is still low.
IMO it is in the best interest of all of the above to maintain this current sentiment for as long as possible.
as they are all trying to lower the cost of batteries for EV’s. With the advancements in Li-ion EV technology, the obvious remaining solution is to increase manufacturering on a mega scale, which all of the above are currently in the process of building.
Sooner or later there’s going to be an immediate demand for High Grade Lithium products just to produce the scale required to reduce the cost of EV batteries. That’s only the start.

Interesting article
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/07/28/lithium-ion-battery-manufacturing-heating-up-in-india/