TLG - Media, page-232

You reply on here like a 16 year old kid with ADD that just smoked crack. What is wrong with you, just 1 reply might be ok if you could focus for more than 5 seconds and put all your incoherent thoughts in one message. This is the TLG forum not the Pabs show.
That aside back to my original point - I was just illustrating why the cost of raw materials (though absolutely important) is not going to be a bottleneck in the unstoppable wave of EV adoption over the next decade.
I showed how for a typical EV battery the difference between lithium chemicals purchased at the cyclical low pricing point compared to the cyclical high makes about $500 overall difference to the price of say a Tesla Model 3. $500 difference to a $75-100k car. Insignificant in the scheme of things, but yes absolutely still on the radar of tesla and other EV manufacturers. Every little helps, but it is not a show stopper.
But... there is the inevitability that a huge supply crunch is coming - EV demand is forecast to scale up much faster than the lithium (and other battery minerals) supply chain can bring on increased production, so prices will rise from their current low point.
My point was merely that there are plenty of other areas to achieve savings in a typical 80-90kWh EV battery. At $127/kwh that puts the battery price at around $11,500 at current cyclical low lithium pricing, and at the high point of lithium pricing this will increase to around $12,000 if all other factors stay the same. Yet in the past 4 years Tesla have dropped their battery price per kWh from $230/kwh to $127/kwh by other improvements, and they are forecast to drop this by a further 50% over the next 3 years - meaning the price increases of the lithium, nickel and graphite going into them is largely eclipsed by other efficiencies.
In short - supply crunch or not, battery prices are only going down. EV prices are only going down. Price parity is coming, and ICE vehicles are being measured for their coffins.
Now go take your adderall.