IPO - Firebird Metals Limited - 19 March 2021 #, page-91

Demand for Manganese is about to go through the roof!

"Volkswagen’s current electric car battery cell contains 65% nickel, 15% cobalt and 20% manganese. Next generation batteries will have 80% nickel, 10% cobalt and 10% manganese, Blome told analysts on a call.Volkswagen is embarking on a mass production push to build 3 million electric cars by 2025, requiring 300 gigawatt hours worth of battery cells, mainly in Asia and Europe, he said.Ramping up manufacturing battery packs at scale will help the carmaker to cut battery cell costs far below $100 per kilowatt hour by 2025, he said."

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-electric-batteries-idUSKBN2142HW

"UBS upgraded its already rosy forecasts, which were only made last November, and the bank is now among the most bullish on EV penetration and battery raw material demand through 2030: EV adoption rate is upped from 17% to 20% by 2025 and from 40% to 50% in 2030 going from just over 3m vehicles last year to 46m. Average battery size is forecast to increase from 47kWh to 94kWh in 2030 as full electric cars take over from hybrids and range requirements increase “Cost parity of BEV’s with ICE equivalents is now in sight”: Battery pack costs to ~$70/kWh by 2025 is achievable on cheaper cells and better pack integration."

https://www.mining.com/top-14-ubs-battery-metals-forecasts-after-vw-teardown/

"Over the past year, Volkswagen has positioned itself as a threat to Elon Musk’s Tesla in the battle for EV market domination, launching a high number of Volkswagen EV models such as the ID3," says eToro analyst Josh Gilbert."As the largest selling car manufacturer in Europe, Volkswagen has nearly tripled its deliveries of EVs last year to over 212,000. In this recent report (Power Day), Volkswagen has laid out ambitious plans to deliver 1 million EVs this current year, investing more than €46 billion in EVs over the next 5 years."
The key takeaways from Power Day include:
the construction of four battery cell “gigafactories” by 2030, taking its European tally to six
Volkswagen Group to be the world’s second largest cell producer27 EVs will be on sale by the end of 2022 (as Forbes reports, "this equates to rolling over Tesla’s entire lineup every quarter for seven quarters").
a new type of cell production will reduce costs by more than 50%, and will find its way into at least 80% of VW's models.

VW will use high-manganese cathodes for the majority of its electric vehicles going forward, citing their lower cost and comparable range compared with today’s state-of-the-art technology. VW plans to increase battery production in Europe scaling to 240 GWH by 2030. The majority of those will be high manganese.

Here, Frank Blome, head of Volkswagen's Center of Excellence for Battery Cells explains the role high-manganese batteries will play in Volkswagen electric vehicles.