Amongst the furore and fallout among car manufacturers and Australia's new emissions laws, a separate split is developing over EV technology that could determine the future of our new critical minerals quest, writes Ian Verrender.
Amidst the political furore and fallout from the recent split among leading auto manufacturers over Australia's new emissions control laws, a deeper chasm is developing over electric vehicle technology.
But the recent crash in the price of critical minerals has delivered a wake-up call to those who merely had assumed that lithium, nickel and cobalt will dominate the future and those who assumed the path towards a lower emissions future would be a straight line.American car buyers lost interest in electric vehicles and instead began switching back to hybrids, vehicles that use a combination of petrol powered internal combustion engines and electric motors.
Ford is talking about a dramatic increase in hybrid production while General Motors, which abandoned hybrids five years ago in favour of battery powered electrics, is mulling a re-run of its shelved hybrid technology. While growth is stagnating in America, globally sales continue to grow strongly with a 55 per cent increase in January compared with the previous January. China dominates demand with Europe bringing in the silver and the US lagging behind in third place.While Musk outwardly portrays a disdain for investment markets, he is coming under pressure. At $US175 a share, Tesla's share price is less than half its 2021 peak when it traded at $US407.
Simultaneously, a new front has broken out in the war against electric vehicles with a strong campaign among some sections of the media that electric vehicles require large amounts of energy intensive material for their manufacture and aren't as good for the environment as they make out.
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