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Lithium is not actually rare. I think this is a big source of continuing confusion in discussions on battery-electric electric vehicles (of all types: bikes, ca
by Robotbeat 5y ago
Lithium is not actually rare. I think this is a big source of continuing confusion in discussions on battery-electric electric vehicles (of all types: bikes, cars, trucks, buses, vans, airplanes, ships, trains, etc) and renewable energy (grid storage).
Production capacity equals demand, roughly. That should not be surprising as production capacity costs money and you don't invest in more production capacity than you have demand. Proven reserves ALSO are some fairly low multiple of demand, for related reasons.
- AtlasBarfed 5y agoCobalt however.... To a lesser degree Nickel is being stressed as well. It's why LFP chemistry is so important. If that can handle mainstream use cases (commuter cars, medium range busses/trucking, etc) then BEV scaling to the entire economy becomes a lot more feasible.
- danans 5y agoLFP is well suited for stationary applications, since its energy density isn't as high as LiIon. I know Tesla uses it in some of their non-US EVs, but those are pretty range limited. The battery system on my house uses LFP cells. They're also extremely thermally stable, and don't require any cooling systems.
- pfdietz 5y agoLFP's lower energy density is at least partially made up for by its higher packing density. Other Li-ion chemistries need "firewalls" to prevent catastrophic propagation of thermal failure, but LFP cells can be packed tightly without such barriers.
- Robotbeat 5y agoIt’s fine for 250 miles range entry level electric cars. That’s equivalent to top of the line 5-10 years ago. Barely qualifies for “pretty range limited.”