Japanese Automakers Toyota and Mazda Team Up to Develop Electric Cars

Japanese automakers Toyota (NYSE:TM) and Mazda Motor (TYO:7261) plan to build a $1.6 billion auto manufacturing plant in the US and work together to develop electric cars, the companies said on Friday (August 4).
According to Reuters, the alliance is an attempt to catch up with rivals in the race for electric car technology.
“What’s different from the past is that there are no nautical charts for us to follow. It’s without precedent,” Toyota President Akio Toyoda said of the push into alternatives to the internal combustion engine.

Will the lithium market keep up with demand?

As electric cars numbers increase, the need for lithium-ion batteries will also soar. In fact, Transparency Market Research estimates that the global lithium-ion battery market sat at $30 billion in 2015, and will rise to more than $75 billion by 2024.
According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, surging demand for electric vehicles is expected to push demand for lithium-ion batteries above 400 GWh by 2025. As a result, most analysts expect global lithium output to reach 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes by the same year.

But the lithium industry is expected to struggle to keep up with this soaring demand, as bringing projects into the market is not always easy. New mines can take years to start producing at full speed, and a lack of timely investments could curb supply in the years to come.
“It is our expectation that the lithium industry will struggle to keep up with demand between now and 2021. [We don’t expect an] oversupply [in the market],” said Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Managing Director Simon Moores.
Click here to read more about what happened in the lithium market in Q2 and what to expect in the next few months.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Priscila Barrera, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.