Lithium
Why Lithium Demand Is Going To Increase
Electric vehicles are driving unprecedented growth in the lithium market. With automakers introducing a wide variety of electric vehicles and with sales growing at 40% annually, lithium will remain in high demand for decades.
Lithium demand is expected to quadruple over the next decade. To convert the global vehicle market to battery power, lithium supply would need to expand by 30x. Even partial adoption of electric vehicles will require dramatic growth. Grid storage, aerial drones, and scooters are also fast-growing markets with large appetites for lithium.
Lithium is irreplaceable for the high-energy batteries that power portable electronics and electric vehicles. Lithium has a unique position on the periodic table, offering high voltage and high capacity that cannot be replicated by other metals. A select few battery technologies have shown potential to one day replace today’s lithium-ion batteries. These new batteries are based on lithium metal and lithium silicon anodes, which improve performance but also increase lithium usage per kilowatt-hour. Lithium is here to stay.
Lithium is also used to treat bipolar disorder, a medical condition affecting 3 million Americans.
