The biggest challenge facing the auto industry is securing enough Lithium for the planned battery packs they will use to power the new EVs that are coming. Seems that since Tesla has signed a contract and started building their auto plant in China, Chinese Lithium suppliers have warmed up to committing to them as a supplier. Ganfeng Lithium of Jiangxi China has signed a 3yr contract with Tesla to supply 1/5th of their yearly production to Tesla for production of batteries. This can be renewed in 3yr chunks if so chosen. Ganfeng Lithium has also signed a long term contract from 2019 to 2025 to supply the majority of Lithium to LG Chem. This shows they have locked in the industry two largest battery suppliers. Ganfeng planned IPO next week on the Hong Kong stock market has now raised additional investor interest and as per the consultants industry has shown how big this has become as these two deals alone dwarf the size of the whole lithium market only a year ago.

Tesla also earlier this year secured lithium production from Australia's Kidman Resources with deliveries starting in 2019 to their Gigafactory. Tesla alone is expected to consume 28,000 tons of Lithium per year in support of building 35 GWh of battery packs at their plant. LG is expected to take 75,000 tons a year of Lithium from Ganfeng. 

Seems based on just these two companies, battery costs to auto companies should see significant drop in cost as they ramp up large scale production.

Charged EV story

Sounds like battery makers need to work on coming up with a  synthetic lithium alternative..

20 minutes ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

Sounds like battery makers need to work on coming up with a  synthetic lithium alternative..

Does make you think about the investment possibilities that are coming with the change in powertrains for EV auto's. 

1 minute ago, dfelt said:

Does make you think about the investment possibilities that are coming with the change in powertrains for EV auto's. 

Seems like an opportunity for criminal enterprise also...chemists making synthetic street drugs could get into the battery game..more profitable long term probably.