The plunging price of petroleum isn’t the only thing threatening to derail demand for battery-based vehicles. At a time when most commodity prices – everything from oil to gold to copper – have been on the decline, traders continue to bid up the fundamental component of today’s electric vehicles: the lithium used in the most advanced batteries.
The raw material, lithium carbonate, more than doubled in price towards the end of last year, and the trend has continued upward, pushing to as much as $23,000 a ton in recent weeks. And that’s even before the battery-car market builds any real momentum.
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