After semiconductors, another shortage could affect the automotive industry. These are batteries, while the materials needed to manufacture them are becoming increasingly rare.
Could we soon be running out of batteries? This is what several big bosses in the automotive industry have been worried about for several weeks. Indeed, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, as well as Rivian executive RJ Scaring, are alarmed at the possibility of a large-scale battery shortage in the coming months. A heavy threat, which would be much greater than the semiconductor crisis, which is still raging today.
While sales of electric cars are really taking off, due in particular to increasingly strict environmental standards, as well as the ever-expanding supply, this likely shortage would be a real disaster for the industry. And this time, it is not the Covid crisis or the closings of factories that would be in question, but the lack of raw materials, when demand would now be too great.
A growing demand
Relayed by the Wall Street Journal, the boss of Rivian wants to be fearful. For him, “semiconductors are just a small appetizer to what awaits us with batteries in the next two decades “. He is all the more concerned that most countries will soon stop selling combustion-powered cars, which means that there may not be enough vehicles produced in relation to demand.
According to a report by the European Energy Agency (IEA), sales of electric cars have already tripled between 2019 and 2021, a figure that is expected to increase further over time. Especially since the demand for batteries does not only come from the automotive industry, but also from other sectors, in particular companies specializing in green energy, which need to store it.
A shortage of raw materials
Unlike the shortage of semiconductors, that of batteries is not linked to factory closures, caused by the health crisis. If the automotive industry fears a lack of batteries, it is above all because of the rise in the price of materials, in particular because of the war in Ukraine. And for good reason, Russia is the world’s third largest producer of nickel, used in the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries.
Its price, as well as that of lithium and graphite, literally exploded, while imports fell. In order to counter the risk of shortages in the coming years, many manufacturers are working on new technologies, including solid-state batteries planned for the end of the decade.
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