There is great excitement and growing anticipation charging through the electric vehicle (EV) industry right now, and for good reason. The world sits on the precipice of a defining moment in human innovation, at the crossroads of technology and transportation.
It is an all-out race, and the United States is positioning itself to take the lead in EV production. But a handful of countries, including China, are so far ahead that catching up is not as easy as simply investing in domestic battery production.
China has one of the strongest long-haul advantages: a robust supply of lithium—the soft, silvery-white metal critical to the batteries that fuel EVs. It is expected that China will continue to outpace the U.S. in the production of this metal, potentially dominating a third of the world’s lithium supply by 2025.
Lithium is easily the most popular and necessary material for EV batteries, providing ideal conditions for storing more energy. It’s the commodity that every EV maker needs in its pipeline. But as more automakers ramp up their EV production plans, the competition for this finite resource is creating yet another logjam of the world’s supply chains.
