Recall when Glencore heralded a new dawn for mining thanks to EVs – telling the audience at its 2017 investors day that “as early as 2020, when electric vehicles would still make up only 2% of new vehicle sales, related metal demand already becomes significant.”
Traditional hybrids remain a meaningful source of battery metals demand and even when stripping out Priuses with new owners, nearly one in five vehicles sold worldwide in Q2 was electrified. When looking at a streamgraph you don’t want the bulge to be at the start, but a chart that looks like an ink blot Rorschach test like the one below is hardly better.December is usually a blowout month for the global EV industry and the final month of 2023 was no exception. During December 2023 battery metals consumption was up another 20% year-over-year to a combined 140,000 tonnes on the back of a 23% increase in total giga-watt hours of battery capacity hitting the world’s roads that month.
This means that at the mine mouth the required tonnes to feed the supply chain are considerably higher.