May 10, 2022 07:00:00

The material price of lithium-ion batteries has risen more than seven times due to the increase in demand for electric vehicles.

Lithium-ion batteries are installed in many products such as smartphones, mobile games, and electric vehicles.

Canary Media , an overseas media, explains the current situation in which the price of lithium carbonate, which is a material, is soaring due to the increase in demand for lithium-ion batteries in recent years.

Chart: Lithium prices are through the roof this year | Canary Media
https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/batteries/chart-lithium-prices-are-through-the-roof-this-year

The graph below shows the price per ton of lithium carbonate . Looking at the graph, it can be seen that the price of lithium carbonate, which was 10,000 dollars (about 1.3 million yen) per ton in 2020, has risen to over 70,000 dollars (about 9.2 million yen) in 2022. increase.

According to Canary Media, the rise in the price of lithium carbonate is due to the increase in demand due to the accelerated conversion from gasoline-powered vehicles to electric vehicles. The lithium carbonate mining facility in operation at the time of writing the article was built by investment before the acceleration of the conversion to electric vehicles, and the mining volume has not kept up with the current demand. For this reason, Canary Media points out that lowering the price of lithium carbonate requires investing in mining facilities to increase mining volume.

Elon Musk, CEO of electric car maker Tesla, also said that the price of lithium soared in April 2022: 'The price of lithium has reached an abnormal level! If the price does not fall, Tesla may need to work on large-scale lithium mining and purification. '' Lithium is ubiquitous on the planet, so its rarity value is not high, but the pace of extraction and purification is slow. ' , Points out that the shortage of mining and refining equipment is affecting the soaring price of lithium.

Price of lithium has gone to insane levels! Tesla might actually have to get into the mining & refining directly at scale, unless costs improve.

There is no shortage of the element itself, as lithium is almost everywhere on Earth, but pace of extraction / refinement is slow.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2022

'The ongoing rise in lithium prices will drive the actions of Mr. Musk and his colleagues,' Canary Media said, hoping that Mr. Musk could start investing in lithium mining facilities. I am.