Social desirability is important enough for consumers to ignore that battery-powered technology is currently more expensive than internal combustion engines.
The country's state development agency says Albemarle has failed to provide as much as 25% of its annual production at a discount to companies seeking to produce battery metals within Chile, as stipulated in a contract signed in 2016.
About 500,000 electric vehicles (EVs) were sold globally in 2016, a figure that is expected to jump sevenfold by 2022 - U.S. Energy Information Administration