The metals needed to power electric vehicles were in hot demand in 2017, but a leading observer of the market believes that prices are still only in the foothills of the peaks they may yet achieve.
Demand for lithium, cobalt and nickel for batteries surged on the back of rising expectations about the move towards electric vehicles and the adoption and viability of large-scale energy storage. The prices of lithium and cobalt have more than doubled in the past year.
Andrew Miller, an analyst at Benchmark Minerals, which collects price data for the lithium-ion battery supply chain, said: “There is a big trend in the energy storage market and we’re now starting to see the beginnings of these big megafactories we’ve talked about.”
Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer, is building the best-known battery facility, its so-called gigafactory in Nevada. However, Benchmark calculates that there are 26 such factories under construction, although it will be several years before there is enough production of the commodities needed to make batteries to meet demand.
