Persistent shortages of lithium over the next decade will lead to fewer car sales and hit the cheaper end of the market hardest, the head of one of the biggest producers of the vital battery metal has warned.
Paul Graves, chief executive of Pennsylvania-based Livent, said the lithium supply crunch as demand roars would lead carmakers to prioritise material for their more profitable models.
“If you take those forecasts of demand or conversion of sales, then we can never expand lithium supply quickly enough to catch up,” he told the Financial Times. “We see no situation where there will be enough lithium to supply all the corners of demand.”