Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
Volkswagen AG said strong demand for its electric cars means the maker of the Porsche Taycan is already sold out of some models for the entire year.
While some models won’t be available again until 2023, there are long wait times for a range of others, Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz said Tuesday. The demand is improving returns of battery-powered cars that are now expected to reach parity with combustion-engine vehicles ahead of schedule.
“We see better scale, we see better margins, we see high customer demand,” Antlitz said on a call with reporters. “Originally we thought it takes two to three years until we see the parity of ICE and battery-electric vehicles.”
VW’s group sales of fully-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles last year jumped more than 80% to about 762,000 units.
Read more: The 18 minutes of trading chaos that broke the nickel market
Europe’s biggest automaker is pushing ahead with the industry’s biggest rollout of electric cars to challenge Tesla Inc. While the pandemic and crippling shortage of semiconductors have hampered the effort, VW last week outlined a robust outlook for the year that impressed analysts amid multiple supply pressures and uncertainty over the war in Ukraine.
Russia is a key exporter of host of inputs, including nickel and palladium as well as steel, while the ability of manufacturers to pass on higher costs to consumers is limited. Car prices have already rocketed as the chip shortage idled plants amid strong vehicle demand. Disruption from the war in Ukraine has forced VW to shut plants more recently.
“Raw materials are clearly a headwind for us,” Antlitz said. “There might be also the time when we need to pass on some of the increases to the market.”
(By Monica Raymunt)
Comments