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Moose_Hooves t1_isggku8 wrote

Reply to comment by luaks1337 in New Ultium Batteries and a Flexible Global EV Platform are Announced by GM by RamslamOO7

Do they still use lithium? I have a lot of money invested in lithium stock and I’m worried something better will come along and mess up my portfolio.

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luaks1337 t1_isgs7bs wrote

Yes all of the car batteries currently use Lithium which is why it's typically not explicitly mentioned when listing battery compounds. You might want to look into Sodium-Ion batteries. With those batteries the Lithium-Ions will be replaced by Sodium-Ions. Right now its properties aren't good enough to replace Lithium in most use cases but we'll see them coming extremely popular in the next 3-5 years. That doesn't mean you should invest in Sodium tho. Sodium is 500 times more abundant in earths crust than Lithium (basically salt in the ocean = Sodium). It's so much and so cheap to extract that prices will likely stay cheap even with demand skyrocketing. My bet would be to either invest into battery companies itself or the suppliers of Sodium. Right now CATL (biggest battery company) is pioneering Sodium-Ion batteries but investing into them is dodgy because it's a Chinese stock. It's hard to say which company will take the lead especially since there is also some potential left in Lithium-Ion batteries which could delay Sodium-Ion batteries taking over the market. The more expensive Lithium gets the faster will companies push for a significantly cheaper Sodium alternative.

I'm also not sure how well the market has already adjusted prices for future breakthroughs. I don't think it's an over hyped technology but it's definitely not a secret tip either.

When looking for companies you might also want to think about the applications the different batteries have. Since Lithium is very energy dense it's mostly used in products that don't offer a lot of space for the amount of energy required (phones, laptops, performance cars). On the other hand as of now Sodium batteries are not as dense while being cheap which is why they make a perfect fit for home/mass electricity storage.

On a side note: you may also want to look into recycling companies. Today only very few batteries are recycled but that's only because electric cars/electricity storage wasn't a thing in 2010. However, 10 years from now battery recycling will grow exactly as fast as the electric car market is growing right now. It's just a delayed boom.

That was a longer comment than I anticipated... As a poor student I can't afford to invest which is why I have the urge to put my thoughts out there whenever I can haha

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Moose_Hooves t1_islt2a0 wrote

What are you studying? Everything you said made sense to me. How do you know so much about batteries?

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luaks1337 t1_isnq0ok wrote

I'm 2nd semester studying AI/CS and I don't have a deeper understanding of chemistry. My battery/economic knowledge mostly comes from university talks on youtube and further researching ^(*googling*) stuff I don't understand. Statistics and maths from my actual studies come in handy even though I'm pretty average at them. It's like a rabbit hole. You start with a simple video that gets you interested and after that you just google all the new keywords and read about them. Tesla > Tesla drivetrain > Tesla battery > Tesla 4680 battery cell > cylindrical battery cell > cylindrical vs. pouch cell > solid state battery > NIO solid state battery > Daimler eCitaro solid state battery > battery lifecycles > battery properties > battery composition > LFP battery > M3P battery > CATL company > Sodium-Ion battery ................

Learning about researchers and institutes also helps me to get a deeper understanding of the current scientific discussions going on etc. It's always important to not fall for researchers that just say stuff because they work for a certain company or similar.

The same thing is possible with every (new) technology. Renewable hydrogen, alternative energy storage solutions, solar panels, wind turbines, nuclear reactors (<- spicy topic), AI, programming languages, it-security, batteries, mechanics of a central bank...

Of course none of it will ever make up for an actual degree in one of these fields but that is not the point. It's just a fun thing to do.

Edit: i forget to mention that most battery stuff I know comes from the KIT/HLU channels on youtube but they are 100% in German.

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