On a bi-weekly basis, CAR welcomes our audience to decompress with our President and CEO, Carla Bailo, as she covers and shares her thoughts on the latest Hot Topics happening in the automotive industry. While the biweekly newsletter primarily covers three topics, this feature story previews one of the topics covered on August 12, 2022. If you would like access to the full newsletter for better insights into critical industry issues you and your organization are facing, sign up for our mailing list here.
HOT TOPICS 8/29/2022 – 9/2/2022
EV Battery Cost, Minerals, and Investments
- Cash is king for EV makers as soaring battery prices drive up vehicle production costs
- Ford, Rivian urge faster permitting process for critical EV minerals
- Lucid and Nikola move to raise additional funds as battery costs surge
- The shift to electric vehicles is about to overwhelm meager US mining operations
- After climate bill passes, automakers race to make EV batteries in the US
- Honda, LG Energy Plan $4.4 Billion EV Battery Factory in U.S.
- Toyota triples planned investment to $3.8 billion in U.S. battery plant
Carla’s thoughts:
Automakers striving to receive the tax incentive of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are facing one heck of a challenge. North America and our trade agreement partners simply do not have enough capacity for the automakers at present, and the creation of a new mine can take up to 10 years and a new refinery up to 2 years. As we all know, the mining industry virtually vanished due to health and safety concerns. It will be an uphill battle to gain the approvals needed and start operations in the timeframe required to meet the current standards. Canada has smartly begun to shorten approval cycles for raw material operations, and we have seen automakers flock to create agreements there. The US needs to move equally fast.
A fine example is Piedmont in North Carolina, which has been trying to obtain approval to mine lithium for over 2 years. We need to find a way to move rapidly in this arena to secure America’s future without overreliance on China and others, which is required not only for the automotive sector but the defense, maritime, and mobility device sectors. The IRA has created the carrot for EVs to succeed, but we need to peel it and dice it to make it edible for all.
For a deeper dive on IRA and what it means for EVs with myself and CAR Research Director Bernard Swiecki, tune in to the latest episode of the CAR Podcast HERE>>>
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Carla Bailo
President & CEO
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