The price is the real challenge of the electric. Word of Carlos Tavares, n.1 of the Stellantis supergroup, which also includes the main Italian brands.
“Price is the real challenge, raw materials are scarce and expensive”
“Even having clean and safe mobility, that’s the big challenge of accessibility, which is currently not there. Why Raw materials used to produce batteries for electric cars they are scarce and expensive“. These are the words spelled out by the Portuguese top manager speaking at the Freedom of Mobility Forum. “The scarcity of raw materials, the fragmentation of the world and the different regulations can have an impact on the costs of the raw materials themselves“explained Tavares. Insisting that the big challenge for automakers is to ensure that everyone can buy electric cars. Not just a privileged group. Stellantis will be ready to meet the deadline of 2035 defined by the EU on internal combustion engines, he added. But “unfortunately the decision on this point had to be taken firstperhaps in 2014 or 2015. It is imposing a single technology instead of a healthy competition“.
Returning to the subject of costs, Tavares did the example of lithium, one of the precious metals used to produce batteries: “It is difficult to protect accessibility to these raw materials and sustainable mobility. Also because to replace the global car fleet of 1.3 billion units with clean vehicles, we do not know if there is all the lithium needed. And, also considering where the lithium mines are concentrated, this could create other geopolitical issues“. In any case, continued Tavares, there are still many ongoing studies on batteries and “the raw materials used to produce them could change, we don’t know what they will be in 10 years. We do not yet know what materials we will needthe searches are just beginning“.