Tesla's battery tweaks won't solve world's cobalt conundrum
SHANGAI – Cobalt bulls, keep calm. Despite what Tesla’s Elon Musk says, there may be no escaping a coming supply crunch as the auto industry hurtles into the era of electric vehicles.
Tesla’s dwindling reliance on cobalt was one of the topics that Musk did want to discuss in an otherwise awkward earnings call with analysts on Thursday. The firm has slashed the highly expensive metal in its batteries and wants to go further. Musk’s crunch quote for enthusiasts: “We think we can get the cobalt to almost nothing.”
Where Tesla leads, others follow, as they say. But, Musk’s views don’t change the wider outlook for a tight market for years to come, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. The surge in electric vehicle output will be “far more significant than the reduction of cobalt intensity, which is close to its limit,” the consultancy’s London-based MD Simon Moores says in an email.
Tesla has always used a battery containing much less cobalt than the form dominating the rest of the EV industry Tesla, and others, have been reducing cobalt usage for a long time, predating the recent price spike Tesla still consumes about 4.5 kg of cobalt per vehicle on average, according to Benchmark estimates, and there’s little room for reduction left. The rest of the industry is also moving towards batteries that reduce cobalt usage, but this will only have a material impact from 2022 onward Within ten years, there’s little prospect of cobalt-bearing batteries being usurped by other technologies
“More cobalt will be needed and the reliance on Democratic Republic of Congo as the primary supplier will increase,” says Moores. “The cobalt conundrum continues.”
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
Rittal is a world leading provider of top-quality integrated systems for enclosures, power distribution, climate control, IT infrastructure and...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Booyco Electronics, South African pioneer of Proximity Detection Systems, offers safety solutions for underground and surface mining, quarrying,...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
