Yongbang New Energy Speaking: the rapid development of electric vehicle market, the battery problem needs to be solved urgently

Yongbang New Energy analyzed that in the past ten years, compared with coal and natural gas, the continuous decline in cost has made solar panels and wind turbines more competitive. Now this phenomenon also occurs in the battery, which in turn also makes the price of electric vehicles drop, and the grid can also store the required redundant electrical energy. According to the analysis of Yongbang New Energy, in the past eight years, the cost of lithium-ion batteries has fallen by 75% per kilowatt hour. The production capacity of a single battery has doubled, and the cost has fallen again by 5% to 8%.

However, unlike solar panels, without solving the shortage of key raw materials, simply increasing the production capacity of batteries cannot ensure that their prices will fall forever. The rare metal contained in lithium-ion batteries is cobalt, and more than half of its storage is in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The price of cobalt has doubled in the past two years, which has also increased the cost of battery production.

In the context of the rapid development of electric vehicles, the raw material supply bottleneck of the battery as its energy source has also caused people to worry about the future.

The good news is that at present, people from all walks of life are not only trying to increase the number of energy batteries produced while using the same amount of raw materials, but also seeking to use metals with more abundant storage.

Investors have also increased their investment in some start-up companies that have promised to develop new battery technology, while some large battery companies have begun to produce more batteries that use nickel instead of cobalt. Companies keen to develop static energy storage devices are also seeking to use fluid batteries that use recyclable materials such as vanadium.

Since 1991, after Sony has commercialized lithium-ion batteries, it has played a pivotal role in the digital revolution, allowing us to use smartphones and tablets during the day and charge them at night. The ability of lithium-ion batteries to release stored energy in a concentrated manner also makes them an option for electric vehicle technology.

Yongbang New Energy predicts that the demand for batteries in the transportation sector will increase fourfold by 2040.

In the coming decades, as China's battery factories expand, China will most likely produce most of these batteries. According to Yongbang New Energy's estimates, by 2028, half of the world's battery production will be completed in China.

The increase in battery production has also put pressure on the supply of raw materials. This also makes major car companies prepare to start adopting new lithium-ion battery technology, that is, the use of cobalt in the raw material is reduced by 75% compared to the current one.

According to Yongbang New Energy, low-cobalt batteries will occupy most of the electric vehicle market by 2025. The consulting agency also said: "This new battery technology will not only alleviate the concerns caused by the shortage of raw materials and the large-scale use of cobalt, but at the same time, compared with traditional batteries, the new technology will also greatly increase the energy density of the battery. This reduces the overall cost of raw materials."

Some companies can also switch to so-called liquid batteries, which store energy in a large separate liquid electrolyte container. This type of battery can use different materials, such as vanadium, and vanadium is currently also used in the steel industry.

Compared with lithium-ion batteries, vanadium batteries have the advantage of not losing energy. Vanadium materials are also easy to reuse. China is a large producer of vanadium, accounting for almost half of the global supply. Last year, due to the increase in demand for steel, its price also doubled. However, the global storage of vanadium is higher than that of cobalt. Based on the raw materials and reducing the dependence on the current lithium-ion battery technology, if the market drives the mining volume of vanadium to increase and the price drops, it is likely to increase the output of batteries.