Frank
Top 20
Ganfeng encourages US EV makers to take stake in its Mexican project to secure supply
Ganfeng says its open to selling a stake in its Mexican project to EV makersChina’s largest lithium producer Ganfeng is open to US automakers making a “strategic” investment in the Sonora lithium mine in Mexico, as they seek to create a North American supply chain for battery raw materials.
The US$420mn Sonora project is scheduled for first production next year, and Ganfeng told Benchmark Minerals Intelligence that an investment by Ford, GM or Tesla would help provide automakers with reliable supplies of lithium that can be easily shipped across the border to plants in the US.
“We are open to having strategic investors in our Mexico project, together with investment we could have an offtake agreement with them,” vice chairman Wang Xiaoshen said.
But Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been talking nationalisation again, saying that if Congress does not approve a constitutional reform on electrical matters this week he will push for a rewrite of the country’s Mining Law.
“In the event that the members of Congress that represent vested interests prevent the reform, in that case, they will not be able to dispose of lithium. They care a lot about lithium, as they want to put their hands on this strategic mineral,” he said.
“If we were to be betrayed, we can still resort to reforming the Mining Law.”
The president pointed out that amending the Mining Law would “make lithium a mineral that belongs to the nation, to the Mexicans.”
Here’s how ASX lithium stocks are tracking today:
A total of 22 stocks were in the green today, with 28 flat-lining and a whopping 64 in the red.
Victorian Tesla electric car uptake more than doubles in first quarter 2022
EV uptake in Victoria has seen a significant shift in the last three months – particularly in the case of market leader Tesla, which sold seven out of 10 cars in Australia in 2021.New data from carloop shows that Victoria, which went through harsher lockdowns during the pandemic, is bouncing back very quickly with the first quarter of 2022 showing Tesla uptake more than double compared to the same period in 2021.
142% increase in Q1 Tesla uptake in 2022
Victoria saw 1,223 new Tesla EVs on the road in the first 3 months of 2022. The recovery from the pandemic has seen many new EV owners in Victoria – showing an uptake increase of 142% in the state.
This increase comes on the back of the Victorian ZEV subsidy scheme introduced last year after the Victorian government set a target of 50% of all EVs to be electric by 2030 in order to reduce transport emissions.
With March being the main delivery month for Tesla’s to export markets from Australia’s supply plant of Shanghai, there was an increase of 60% in deliveries to Victorian drivers in 2022 compared to 2021.
Tesla EV Uptake Predictions for Q2 and Beyond
With Tesla uptake on significant growth in Victoria and other states in Australia compared to previous years, 2022 looks to be a very strong year for Tesla in the state.
Even after the Tesla Model 3 price increases in Australia during March 2022, the demand seems to outstrip supply significantly.
With Model Y launch in Australia looking to be getting closer, we predict over 20,000 Tesla EVs to be delivered nationwide by the end of 2022 which would be great news for EV uptake as a whole in Victoria and the rest of the country.
*To Remind,
Elon Musk says Tesla might have to get into mining
Elon Musk has tweeted that Tesla might have to actually get into lithium mining and refining because of sky high prices and a long lead time to production.Musk was responding to a tweet showing the price has increased around 1653% since 2012.
But it’s not the first time the EV giant has looked to mine its own lithium.
In 2020 Tesla secured its own rights to mine lithium in Nevada after a deal to buy a lithium miner fell through, but it was a clay deposit which is difficult to produce commercial quantities from.
It’s unclear what direction the EV giant will take or if more manufacturers will follow in Tesla’s footsteps.
Earlier this month Benchmark Minerals Intelligence boss Simon Moores flagged that EV makers need to get become miners if they want to secure supply and manufacture at scale.
“If OEMs don’t get a grip on this soon … raw materials prices will continue to go up,” he said.
Food for thought
Frank
just smart and believe in yourself when others don’t. 
