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by irrelative 1521 days ago
Lithium-Iron-Phosphate chemistries appear likely to be the choice for less flashy vehicles, and don't require cobalt or nickel. It's slightly less energy dense, though has some other benefits.

Lithium mining can be increased, though perhaps not at current price points (unsure about this).

I'll agree that 2 EVs per suburb house is a bit absurd, but it was absurd before EVs too.

1 comments

Lithium mining can be increased quite easily and is absurdly profitable at current prices which are about an order of magnitude above where it was 3 years ago.

The problem is time, it takes about 5 years to bring up a mine or a processing plant. Then the worry is that everybody will do it, crashing the market due to over supply.

There are a bunch of mines halfway through this process, but even when they come online in 2025 or so, they're not enough to meet demand. So any crash in Lithium prices is unlikely to come before 2028. But would you invest in a new mine to come online in 2028?