Livent Corporation
By Elric Langton | 25 April 2022
I do not have a position in Livent, yet.
Regular readers will be aware I have been paying particular interest to the evolution of the motor vehicle industry as its transitions from ICE to E.Vs. The inception of E.Vs is not new; the first E.V was developed by Thomas Davenport in 1835 in the USA, well before fossil fuels. In 1908, in the USA engineered by Henry Martin Ford, Ford as they are known today.
We do not see many of them today, but the most common EV was once the milk float, which had a top speed of 0-30 in sixty minutes. It was not until General Motors developed the first purpose-built mass-produced EV1, between 1996 to 1999, that the imagination for E.Vs gained attention. Since then, Tesla has inspired a whole new wave of EVs, and now we are seeing more of them.
A new dawn in EV and power storage is upon us, which I have discussed in great detail in previous editorials, so I will not regurgitate but instead focus on a less speculative Company that is well placed to reap the rewards presented to it with the surge in demand for lithium battery power, commonly referred to as Lithium-Ion. This Company also has defensive qualities, a hedge if you will against lithium price fluctuations - more on this later.
Global E.V market share in 2021, by manufacturer
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) was ranked as the best-selling electric vehicle manufacturer worldwide after selling close to 936,200 units in 2021, which is expected to increase to over 1.5 million cars in 2022. Tesla's sales volume translates into a market share of just under 14%. Volkswagen Group and Chinese Build Your Dream Car (BYD) were among the runners-up. Essentially, all major vehicle manufacturers are increasing their E.V volumes. More recently, Both Ford and General Motors have set themselves pure E.Vs exclusively by 2035.
This data alone demonstrates the direction of travel for lithium demand, as well as nickel and cobalt.
Elon Musk says Tesla may have to get into the lithium business because costs are so “insane”.
We will be featuring several interesting lithium miners very soon.