First off show me were I stated that it's the end for Nickel use, maybe you need to comprehend the words and what has been written, instead of twisting words to suit yourself.
And we can see who hasn't done enough research into the future of battery technology's for the EV Industry as the different compositions of battery technology that are currently being worked on are to reduce the need for the Dangerous Minerals such as Nickel an Cobalt, these dangerous minerals are responsible for nearly every fire on board EV's that have either the NCA or NCM compositions of battery technology.
Car manufacturers like Tesla, BYD, Toyota, Volkswagen and many others are all working towards eliminating theses minerals not only from a Safety Aspect but also because of the exuberant Costs of such minerals, and you clearly show that with your expertise by mentioning the pricing of Cobalt trading around 44lb.
So it's not hard to see why all these car manufacturers are sourcing and working towards better safer and cheaper alternatives, one only has to be switched on to see the changes coming in battery technology with the inclusion of many other minerals such as Graphene, Sulphur and Sodium for the storage market.
The biggest battery Manufacture in the world CATL is currently working on using Sodium-ion Cells together with the lithium based cells in one EV pack that they are combining to leverage the benefits of both.
CATL recently stated Sodium-ion Cells could offer greater fast charging performance than current technology, along with lifecycle and safety performance that matches and exceeds that of it's own LFP based Lithium Cells. CATL also stated the Sodium is far more abundant than lithium so can be produced in larger quantities at a much lower cost.
Furthermore the Company stated from a manufacturing perspective Sodium-ion Cells can be made using existing battery manufacturing equipment so would not require any factory redesigns to be put into production, the company hopes to ramp up the Sodium-ion supply chain by 2023.
Sort of blows your theory of converting a factory into another type of battery supplier doesn't it, but of course you would know all that given your expertise in research, that might be better taken with a grain of Sodium.
As to the timeframes of retooling again CATL built 2 Mega Factories in China in the space of 14 month's whilst Tesla's Mega Factory in Shanghai took 168 days to complete, that's just over 5 and a half months, so you say 7 years it takes to retool, thinking maybe the tool is not in the right place, maybe the tool needs to sharpened up a little, but hey as the hotdog says make sure you DYOR it really helps, c ya.
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