The Biden administration is offering a $2.26 billion loan to help Lithium Americas Corp. develop a Nevada lithium deposit that’s the country’s largest…The conditional loan from the US Department of Energy will provide the vast majority of the capital needed to fund the first phase of development…The size of the investment in a company that’s little-known outside the industry underscores the urgency the Biden administration feels around securing supplies of the metal that’s key to the energy transition. The funding being offered to the company’s Lithium Nevada Corp. subsidiary by the Energy Department will help finance construction of a lithium carbonate processing plant…The funding, the largest-ever loan to a mining company from the DOE’s Loan Programs Office, comes amid mounting efforts to help build domestic supplies of critical minerals…The Loan Programs Office has more than $400 billion to spend following an infusion of cash from President Joe Biden’s signature climate law…“We are fighting back to get every piece of the supply chain back in the United States or with our allies,” Granholm said.

Localised battery cell and finished battery manufacturing in Europe is a priority for the automotive industry based there. The region needs around 50 gigafactories over the next decade if it is to establish its own battery EV supply chain and hit EV production targets…However, they are lagging behind Chinese EV makers in the establishment of an end-to-end, battery electric vehicle (BEV) supply chain. Those Chinese carmakers are now targeting Europe with battery EV exports for consumers and fleet sales...China benefitted from its move into mass production of battery-powered consumer electronics from Japan and Korea in the 1990s, and from its investment in the mining and refining the rare earth metals needed for battery production. Likewise, it is in the lead in terms of the battery production line equipment manufacturing. With strong government backing it used these advantages to leapfrog the west in automotive production as the transition to electric powertrains gathered pace…“Europe is late to the party,” says Andy Palmer, chairman of Inobat. “From a geopolitical point of view it’s important we have indigenous manufacturing to secure the supply chain and to reduce logistics emissions.”…That said, there is now momentum in Europe and a number of prototype and full production battery plants are being established, and leading carmakers are building pure EV manufacturing plants, in close collaboration with those battery makers…Carmakers and their battery makers are supporting the nascent battery supply chain with logistics strategies that aim to be as sustainable as the vehicles being produced…At the same time, longer supply chains are subject to a range of disruptions meaning a localised supply chain promises greater resilience, albeit with a reliance on longshore rare earth metal sourcing, which continues to test principles of ethical and social governance…Non-indigenous battery makers are also gaining ground in Europe, notably those from Asia…They include South Korea’s LG Energy Solution. Its battery plant in Wrocław, Poland is currently Europe’s biggest producer of lithium batteries for passenger and commercial vehicles, with a current annual production capacity equal to 86 GWh and a goal to reach a maximum of 90 GWh by 2025…LG Energy Solution says responsible sourcing is vital to the ongoing success of its business. The company and its subsidiaries require all suppliers to comply with the Responsible Sourcing Policy and the Supplier Code of Conduct, which is embedded into the general terms and conditions. It says these policies are aligned with internationally recognised standards and frameworks, including the Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict Affected and High-Risk Areas, issued by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)… “There is a long history of the Chinese government blocking the supply of components because someone made a specific political decision,” he points out. “You are at risk if your whole supply chain depends on Chinese players. The ideal situation is to have diverse supply from different players so you can put them in competition and mitigate the risk of [materials or services] becoming too expensive or government decisions in China impacting supply.” 

The federal government’s requirement that all new vehicles sold by 2035 be electric could increase Canada’s power demands by as much as 15.3 per cent, requiring the equivalent of 10 new mega hydro dams or 13 large natural gas plants to meet the increased power needs, finds a new study published today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank…“Requiring all new vehicle sales in Canada to be electric in just 11 years means the provinces need to substantially increase their power generation capabilities, and adding the equivalent of 10 new mega dams or 13 new gas plants in such a short timeline isn’t realistic or feasible,” said G. Cornelis van Kooten, Fraser Institute senior fellow and author of Electric Vehicles and the Demand for Electricity.