Lithium News

California’s car buyers are shifting their loyalties from the internal combustion engine to electric batteries—but ever so slowly. Despite car sales declining in the Golden State since 2016, the number of electric and hybrid cars sold continues to rise. In the first half of 2019, sales hit 51,750 and 48,861, respectively. That’s a 40% increase for both over last year.

Yet overall, the vast majority of car sales in California, one of the US’s most environmentally conscious states, remain gasoline-powered. Pure electric cars account for just 5.5% of California’s vehicle sales (or 13% when including all types of electrification), compared to 81% for petrol cars. But California is the US leader in electric vehicles (EVs). It plans to have 5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2030 and accounted for about half of the 105,472 electric cars sold in the US in the first half of the year.

Yet overall, the vast majority of car sales in California, one of the US’s most environmentally conscious states, remain gasoline-powered. Pure electric cars account for just 5.5% of California’s vehicle sales (or 13% when including all types of electrification), compared to 81% for petrol cars. But California is the US leader in electric vehicles (EVs). It plans to have 5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2030 and accounted for about half of the 105,472 electric cars sold in the US in the first half of the year.

The brightest spot by far for EV sales is Tesla’s Model 3. The company’s new “mass-market” vehicle, which starts at $38,990 (before incentives), has proven to be a best-seller, outpacing standard sedans in its class such from the likes of BMW or Mercedes, and rocketing beyond the rest of the field. Whether other automakers can conjure the same magic as Tesla CEO Elon Musk for their own models remains to be seen.

The electrification of the world’s transportation systems is still in its nascent stages, but more and more companies are apparently considering an electric future, and that now includes Canadian firm BRP, better known as Bombardier, maker of all manner of wheeled (and floating) fun machines including go-karts, watercraft, side-by-sides and, perhaps soon, motorcycles.

In a product showcase that took place in Las Vegas a few days ago, BRP took time to show off a slew of electrified concept vehicles that included six prototypes. Perhaps most interesting, an electric motorcycle and a spyder-style three-wheeler were ridden onstage.

BRP was quick to point out that all of the electric ideas that were shown in Vegas are likely not coming to a showroom anytime soon, but Denys Lapointe, SVP of Design, Innovation and Creative Services, also made clear that electric vehicles are under strong consideration in the company’s near-future plans. “BRP has been working for some time on how to create e-vehicles to bring new experiences to potential and existing riders. As we’ve said, it was never a question of “if’’, but “when,’’ Lapointe said in a press release. “We continue to constantly innovate, and e-vehicles are no exception. For the moment, these are preliminary concepts as we are currently evaluating market viability,’’ he added.

No vehicle specs were released, but the display was impressive, especially the motorcycle and spyder, which featured a roof of sorts. The as-yet unnamed motorcycle featured an innovative, almost monocoque design and judging from a YouTube video frame grab (above), it was sporting a full-on working speedo/display panel as it was ridden onstage. So not exactly a mock-up. “These concepts give a glimpse of what the future could hold, among others, for both of its current product lines and for other potential segments,” BRP said in its press release.

It’s notable that BRP scooped up some assets from now-defunct electric motorcycle make Alta Motors earlier this year. Alta was linked to Harley-Davidson as they spooled up their $30,000 Livewire electric motorcycle, which is now on the market, but they quickly parted ways as Alta floundered.

The fact that a company like BRP is looking towards electrification is important. BRP is a big umbrella under which many prominent outdoor-oriented brands such as Sea-Doo, Can-Am, Alumacraft, Rotax, Manitou and Evinrude reside. If they push forward on electrifying outdoor products that have traditionally been gas-powered and do it in a way that makes sense for their consumers – especially in the work vehicles segment – it could be another beachhead for the expanding EV market, and other companies, such as Polaris, with their many brands (including Indian), could follow.

Electrified vehicles could find a comfortable home in the outdoor market, where a quiet electrified vehicle may have advantages over gas-powered rigs when it comes to hunting and other sound-sensitive activities. Indoor karting at facilities like K1 Speed, where drivers battle it out on weather-shielded indoor tracks in electric go-karts, are rising in popularity since the tracks are enclosed, the machines are quiet but are still fast and fun. BRP, via Rotax, now has an e-kart facility up and running in Linz, Austria. For many people, especially youngsters, the e-karts are their first exposure to a high-performance electric vehicle, and BRP’s Rotax SONIC electric go-karts are already being driven. They may be joined by some other fun toys soon.

Brazil-based lithium startup Sigma Lithium Resources Corp has held talks with Tesla Inc and other automakers about supplying the key battery ingredient in the coming years, the company’s chief executive said on Thursday.

Sigma, which recently received its license to begin hard rock lithium mining in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, met with Tesla supplier Ganfeng Lithium <002460.SZ>, at the automaker’s request. But it is holding off on a deal because of the terms the Chinese company is demanding, Chief Executive Calvyn Gardner said in an interview.

“There’s a bunch of other things that they need, not just prices, but other demands which are a little more complicated that sort of restricts Sigma to almost supplying purely into China,” Gardner said on the sidelines of a Brazilian mining conference. “It’s not really what we think we should be doing over the long term.”

Although lithium prices have slumped in the past year, Sigma and other producers hope to benefit from a long-awaited boom in electric car production when prices of the vehicles become more competitive.

He added that Sigma would prefer to ship its lithium directly to Tesla in California, although that can only happen once makers of cathodes, one of the two main battery components, set up shop in the United States.

Gardner said he is a “big fan” of Tesla, to the point where he tried to import one of the company’s Model 3 sedans for personal use into Brazil, where the electric car maker has no dealerships. He gave up after discovering the car would cost $75,000 given Brazilian import taxes, rather than the roughly $35,000 U.S. price including tax credits.

Sigma, which would be among the world’s lowest-cost suppliers of the mineral, has also held informal talks with German automakers Volkswagen and BMW .

“Having options to get lithium from other jurisdictions and that you can supply over the long term, that’s what all of them are interested in and we think Sigma can do that,” Gardner said.

Sigma in April struck an alliance with Japan’s Mitsui <8031.T> which included $30 million in funding for its planned commercial production plant. In return, Mitsui will get roughly a third of the mine’s initial planned output of 220,000 tonnes.

The alliance will help Sigma move closer to automakers given Mitsui’s partnerships with Asian battery makers which in turn supply the carmakers, he said.

In July, we sang the praises of the Honda E, the company’s first attempt at a mass produced battery electric vehicle. Packed into a diminutive package with styling that harks back to the original Civic, the Honda E is clearly meant to be an urban runabout that can scoot through the heaviest traffic and park in the smallest available space. It’s cool and kicky and everyone who sees it just wants to give it a hug.

Inside, the Honda E is packed with digital goodies, starting with an array of 5 screens that span the entire width of the car, including two that replace the traditional side view mirrors, an innovation that is surely coming just as soon as regulators approve of the idea. Voice commands are included to control certain functions, freeing the driver of such mundane tasks as adjust the volume of the sound system. The included My Honda+ app provides instantaneous notifications about the location of chargers and battery status. It also permits remote operation of the heating and cooling systems.

Cuanto Cuesta?

The question on everyone’s lips for the past few months has been, “OK. The car looks really interesting. I might actually want a car like this. How much is it going to cost me?” And the answer is…….plenty. Bear in mind that the Honda E only has a 35.5 kWh battery, which gives it a fairly modest range of 137 miles. It comes in two versions, one with a 152 horsepower motor and the other with a 134 horsepower motor.

Are you sitting down? UK prices for the Honda E are as follows: £29,660 for the less powerful version; £32,160 for the more powerful version. For Americans, that translates to US$36,700 and US$39,800. Keep in mind that a.) this car is not coming to the US, and b.) significant electric car rebates are available to UK customers. The top line car can be leased in the UK for £299 a month.

Engadget points out that the Renault Zoe costs a few hundred pounds less than the Honda E but comes with a much larger 52 kWh battery and 182 mile range. The Nissan LEAF costs several thousand pounds more but has a 62 kWh battery.

What does it all mean? It means that the Honda E is not the low priced urban street fighter many people were hoping for. It’s small. It has limited range but can be charged from 10 to 80% in 30 minutes. And it comes with a premium price tag.

Will people pay what Honda is asking for the car? We’ll find out when sales begin in about a year from now. In the meantime, the quest for more affordable electric cars continues. 

Lithium-ion batteries have gained in popularity over the last decade based on their higher power and small size. But their popularity is straining the world’s supply of cobalt and nickel, two metals used in lithium batteries. As a result, prices for those metals have skyrocketed.

To develop alternative designs for lithium-based batteries with less reliance on those scarce metals, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have been looking into new cathode and electrolytes to replace the expensive metals and traditional liquid electrolyte with lower cost transition metal fluorides and a solid polymer electrolyte.

“Electrodes made from transition metal fluorides have long shown stability problems and rapid failure, leading to significant skepticism about their ability to be used in next generation batteries,” says Gleb Yushin, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Materials Science and Engineering. “But we’ve shown that when used with a solid polymer electrolyte, metal fluorides show remarkable stability, even at higher temperatures, which could lead to safer, lighter, and less-expensive lithium-ion batteries.”

Lithium-ion batteries have gained in popularity over the last decade based on their higher power and small size. But their popularity is straining the world’s supply of cobalt and nickel, two metals used in lithium batteries. As a result, prices for those metals have skyrocketed.

To develop alternative designs for lithium-based batteries with less reliance on those scarce metals, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have been looking into new cathode and electrolytes to replace the expensive metals and traditional liquid electrolyte with lower cost transition metal fluorides and a solid polymer electrolyte.

“Electrodes made from transition metal fluorides have long shown stability problems and rapid failure, leading to significant skepticism about their ability to be used in next generation batteries,” says Gleb Yushin, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Materials Science and Engineering. “But we’ve shown that when used with a solid polymer electrolyte, metal fluorides show remarkable stability, even at higher temperatures, which could lead to safer, lighter, and less-expensive lithium-ion batteries.”

In typical lithium-ion batteries, energy is released during the transfer of lithium ions between an anode and a cathode, with the cathode typically made of lithium and transition metals such as cobalt, nickel, and manganese. Ions flow between the electrodes through a liquid electrolyte.

The Georgia Tech researchers fabricated a new type of cathode from iron fluoride and a solid polymer electrolyte nanocomposite. Iron fluorides have more than double lithium’s capacity of traditional cobalt- or nickel-based cathodes. In addition, iron is 1/300th the cost of cobalt and 1/150th the cost of nickel.

To produce such a cathode, the researchers inserted a solid polymer electrolyte into a prefabricated iron fluoride electrode. They then hot pressed the entire structure to increase density and eliminate voids.

The polymer-based electrolyte is flexible so it can accommodate the swelling of the iron fluoride while cycling and forms a stable and flexible interphase with iron fluoride. Traditionally, the swelling and side reactions have been key problems when using iron fluoride in batteries.

“Cathodes made from iron fluoride have enormous potential because of their high capacity, low material costs, and the broad availability of iron,” Yushin says. “But changes in volume during cycling, as well as parasitic side reactions with liquid electrolytes and other degradation issues, have limited their use previously. Using a solid electrolyte with elastic properties solves many of these problems.”

The researchers then tested several variations of the new solid-state batteries to analyze their performance over more than 300 charging and discharging cycles at a temperature of 122⁰F. They found that the new batteries outperformed previous designs using metal fluoride even when these were kept cool at room temperatures.

The researchers determined that the key to the better battery performance was the solid polymer electrolyte. In previous attempts using metal fluorides, it was believed metallic ions moved to the cathode’s surface to eventually dissolve into the liquid electrolyte, causing a capacity loss, particularly at elevated temperatures. In addition, metal fluorides catalyzed the rapid decomposition of liquid electrolytes when cells operated above 100⁰F. However, at the connection between the solid electrolyte and the cathode, the solid electrolyte remains stable, preventing the electrolyte from dissolving.

“The polymer electrolyte we used was common, but many other solid electrolytes and other battery or electrode architectures, such as core-shell particle morphologies, should be able to dramatically mitigate or even fully prevent parasitic side reactions and attain stable performance characteristics,” says Kostiantyn Turcheniuk, a research scientist in Yushin’s lab.

In the future, the researchers aim to develop new and improved solid electrolytes to enable fast charging and to combine solid and liquid electrolytes in new designs fully compatible with conventional cell manufacturing used in large battery factories.

At this week’s Frankfurt Motor Show, an array of new electric vehicles are making their debut, with a number of them set to reach U.S. shores in the coming months. By the end of 2020, industry analysts anticipate, there will be as many as two dozen long-range BEVs available in American showrooms.

Electric cars currently carry an often hefty price premium over comparable gas-powered models, a penalty that can be offset by federal and, where available, local incentives. But a new study finds that a growing number of states are actually penalizing EV buyers by socking them with added fees.

Ostensibly, these added charges — anywhere from $50 to $250, depending upon the state — are meant to offset lost revenue from gas taxes that help pay for state road maintenance and construction. But an analysis by Consumer Reports found that, in many states, the fees can substantially exceed what an owner of a conventional vehicle would be paying in fuel taxes.

“We realize we need to fund our roadways and our infrastructure,” said Josh Boone, executive director of Veloz, a California-based non-profit promoting EV adoption. But he cautioned that a “common sense approach” is necessary or those states risk putting up “a barrier…that could be devastating to the future of the electric car movement.”

For now, battery-electric vehicles, or BEVs, typically cost thousands of dollars more than comparable models using gasoline engines, though prices have begun to dip as battery prices come down. But most industry experts anticipate it will take at least until mid-decade before prices are on par.

Federal tax credits of up to $7,500, depending upon the vehicle, have helped offset that penalty, a factor analysts say has contributed to the surge in demand for products like the Tesla Model 3. But after hitting a critical sales threshold, the California carmaker’s incentives were cut to $3,750 last January, and halved again in July. They will vanish entirely at the start of 2020 and, as General Motors, Nissan and other manufacturers hit the sales threshold of 200,000 vehicles, they’ll see their federal incentives phased out, as well.

One advantage often highlighted by EV proponents, notably including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is the fact that EVs are cheaper to operate because of the relatively low cost of electricity. At a national average of about 11 cents per kilowatt-hour, the Tesla Model S P100d sedan would cost just $11 to fully recharge a drained battery pack, working out to about 3.5 cents a mile over its 315 mile range. Even if it got a highly efficient 30 miles per gallon, a similar gas-powered car would cost $27.02 to full up, or 8.6 cents a mile.

Of course, the price of a gallon of gasoline includes state taxes — mostly for highway funds — averaging 49.62 cents a gallon, reports the American Petroleum Institute.