10 October 2008Limited lithium supplies could restrict electric...

10 October 2008
Limited lithium supplies could restrict electric car growth.

Are the resources sufficient to ensure the development of the market? The answer is very difficult, due to the opacity of trading. “It’s not a very open market, a closed world, very secret”, says George Pichon. Production figures are not known exactly. It is estimated by the USGS (the geological service of the USA) at 25,000 tonnes per year. “In any case the price has increased enormously, mainly for speculative reasons” explains Jean-Marc Metais, CEO of Batscap, the Bollore subsidiary. “That’s why we are trying to control our supply channel, to secure our resources upstream”.

Another difficulty is that batteries for electric vehicles require lithium carbonate purified to 99.5%. This means a process quality which the Japanese companies seem to have mastered.

The car manufacturers display no signs of concern about reserves of the metal. However a study by consultancy Meridian International Research published in May (The Trouble with Lithium 2) has thrown a cold draught on the subject: examining in detail the geological configurations of the different production sites it concludes: “Realistic increases in lithium production will not enable a revolution in automobile propulsion to be achieved in the next decade. (...) In the most optimistic scenario, it would only supply 8 million GM Volt type hybrids” (the next hybrid model from General Motors). This figure can be compared to a world market of 60 million petrol cars in 2008.