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Processed chemicals used for battery making cost many times the cost of raw materials, and it will be so until competition can weaken the big chem oligopolies c
by baybal2 6y ago
Processed chemicals used for battery making cost many times the cost of raw materials, and it will be so until competition can weaken the big chem oligopolies currently dominating the market.
- Retric 6y agoThat’s completely misunderstanding why the cost increased. 95% pure carbon is worth next to nothing per pound. 99.99+% carbon is really difficult to manufacture. If battery manufacturers thought they could do it for less they would manufacture things in house, but purification is both difficult and expensive.
- thereisnospork 6y agoIf it is so easy[0] go start a company and undercut them. Raw materials are commodities, if you can make battery grade materials for less - in bulk - someone will buy them (or buy you out to protect their monopoly). [0]its not. Batteries have exacting purity and qc requirements that meeting and maintaining is neither trivial nor cheap to do well even at small scale.
- jobu 6y agoWhat sort of processing are they doing? It seems like processing those materials to be pure and consistent could be pricey. Maybe not a perfect comparison, but raw silicon costs $1-2 per kg, but can cost several hundred per kg once processed into wafers.
- redisman 6y agoHow come this soup cost $5 per cup when it cost them $0.1 to make?! Of course making soup is fairly easy compared to highly pure chemicals
- Retric 6y agoBecause that calculation assumes the existence of a kitchen to make the soup, energy to heat the soup etc. If you ignore what the actual costs of production are it seems like everyone is using an extreme markup.
- Someone 6y agoAre you sure it isn’t, at least partly, due to intrinsic costs of turning raw materials into usable materials? Silicon as a raw material is dirt cheap, too, but removing impurities so that it can be used makes it a lot more expensive.