EV sales growth is good news for a critical minerals...

EV sales growth is good news for a critical minerals spike
November 2, 2020|Bevis Yeo

European electric vehicle sales are expected to triple to about 10 per cent of all vehicles this year and could make up as much as 15 per cent of total market vehicle by 2022 according to a new report by green policy think tank Transport & Environment.

That’s good news for the critical minerals sector.

This is thanks to the European Union’s emissions standards, which are due to become more stringent next year.

From 2021, phased in from 2020, the EU fleet-wide average emission target for new cars will be 95 grams of carbon dioxide per km, which equates to a fuel consumption of about 4.1 litres per 100km of petrol or 3.6 l/100 km of diesel.

Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel and Vauxhall, Volvo, Tesla and BMW Group are already complying with these targets while Renault, Nissan, Toyota and Ford have a small gap of just 2g of carbon dioxide per km.

T&E added that while EVs could make up 20 per cent of all automobile sales in four years if current regulations are not revised, more ambitious targets would be required to drive further growth.

Europe isn’t the only region pushing EVs. China is looking to have new energy vehicles (NEV) make up 25 per cent of all sales by 2025.

And it is not satisfied with the domestic market either with UBS analysts saying that Chinese players would seek to aggressively enter overseas markets.

This growth in EV demand and growing awareness of the importance of supply chain security – particularly for critical minerals – is music to the ears for miners and junior explorers in the battery metals and other EV related spaces.

TheAustralian government has also recognised the importance of critical minerals, publishing a report that highlighted 200 mining projects covering 24 critical minerals.

EV battery metals

Pure Minerals PM1 has inked an offtake-potential project funding deal with the world’s biggest electric vehicle battery maker, LG Chem.

This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) – a non-binding agreement that comes before a legal one – is for the supply of 10,000t nickel and 1,000t cobalt each year from Pure’s TECH Project in Queensland .