Benchmark Mineral Intelligence monitors and advises the global battery industry. They gave their reaction to Tesla anode and cathode and lithium announcements.
The World produced 180 GWh of batteries in 2019.
Tesla is going upstream in the battery supply chain. This will change the world from a China-dominated battery supply chain.
Piedmont Lithium Limited has entered into a five-year deal to supply Tesla with spodumene concentrate (“SC6”) from Piedmont’s North Carolina deposit.
Benchmark Minerals Intelligence does not know how Tesla would be able to eliminate the steps in battery production or make the silicon cathode or the anode.
Tesla’s announcements are an earthquake for the battery supply chain and the mines and suppliers.
SOURCES- Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, Tesla, MeetKevin
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com (Brian owns shares of Tesla)
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
I think that this is way bigger than other Battery Day news and less likely to be achieved as stated. I am not clear on sourcing of all rare materials as easily and locally as seems to be implied — and then there's Labor. I am prepared to be WOWed, however.
Meanwhile, back in the 20th century
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1#Battery
Or, if we want to really look into what reality says, rather than marketing speak (A.K.A "lies that are lied by lying liars"), we can go all the way back to the 19th century
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_Motor_Vehicle
Only if it is cheaper per kWh. The batteries are already good enough, so the only important (or almost only) metric is price. And I have a hard time seeing graphene batteries becoming cheaper than ordinary run-of-the-mill lithium ion batteries….
I keep watching the "Benchmark Minerals Intelligence" for some interesting arguments, but I wait in vain. What I hear is a lot of "ping pong" going back and forth where one analyst claims that "if it was so easy, then it would have been done already" and the next one answering that "yes, the chemical and battery industry would already have done it".
But not a single explanation why this must be the case in the specific examples. Why must it take several days to make a cell-to-car body battery? Why must it take several years to switch to a larger form factor for the battery? A.s.o.
Newsflash: Tesla under promises! Where you say it's impossible to have 10 GWh in 2021, my guess is that they will have it in *early 2021*. When you think it is unlikely to have 100 GWh in 2022, my bet is on 200 GWh in 2022. Simply because Tesla has switched to delivering more than what they promise.
One the one hand, "Teslas battery day will reverberate across the industry" and on the other hand "Tesla will not be able to implement all their improvements in a short time". Not even in 5 years. I.e. getting to 100 GWh in 2022 is not realistic.
So.. They are arguing that the industry will have to adapt to Tesla, but Teslas time plan i unrealistic? Is that not having it both ways?
The analysts of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence from keep claiming that Teslas scaling of their battery production will not happen at the speed that they claim. To motivate this, they keep reiterating that "the laws of physics are what they are" and that you cannot scale up the supply chain as quickly as Tesla assumes.
But is it really a consequence of physics that a supply chain is a certain size? I think not. I also did not catch any explanation why this would be so, i.e. how physics limits the growth of the supply chain. I mean, if you are chatting away for more than one hour, surely you could make that link between "physics" and growth rate of the supply chain if there were one?
I guess this is just a catch phrase to make their arguments sound more consequential than they really are.
The guys from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence keep making simple mistakes when judging the feasibility of Teslas silicon anodes. They say that they had the "impression" that the anodes would contain 100% and that this is not feasible, but the battery day presentation clearly claimed 20% silicon in the anode. To make things worse, one of the analysts said he "had to go back and listen to the presentation again". If he did this, why did he not catch the clearly enunciated number 20%?
eventually pepole will use carbon graphene tech and not lithium tech batteries
Kings Mtn, NC has one of the largest proven reserves of Lithium ore (spodumene) in the world. But, the refiner there was only using imported ore. I wonder if they are going to be mining locally again? Kings Mtn, is about 25 miles from Charlotte.