Battery costs make up the lion’s share of electric vehicle prices. Lithium is the key protein in that big cat diet. But supply problems have pushed up volatile prices.
That has left manufacturers and investors groping for a cheaper substitute in the form of sodium. This has similar chemical properties to lithium, which make it useful in batteries. The element is even more abundant geologically and thus cheaper to extract.
Lithium carbonate prices rose 13-fold between early 2021 and late 2022. It has given up three-quarters of that gain this year. The metal still accounts for about 40 per cent of the cost of a lithium-ion battery cell. If lithium doubles in price again that proportion would rise to 70 per cent, Bernstein analysts say.
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