Stellantis is turning to Australia as it hopes to get the input it needs for its electric vehicle strategy in the coming years.
On Monday, the automaker said it had signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Sydney-listed GME Resources Limited regarding “future sales of significant nickel and cobalt sulphate battery products.”
The MoU focuses on material from the NiWest Nickel-Cobalt project, which is intended to be developed in Western Australia, Stellaantis said.
In a statement, the company described NiWest as a business that will produce about 90,000 tons of “battery nickel sulfate and cobalt sulfate” annually for the electric vehicle market.
To date, more than A$30 million ($18.95 million) has been “invested in drilling, metallurgical testing and development research,” Stellantis said. The final feasibility study for the project will begin this month.
In a statement on Monday, Stellantis, whose brands include Fiat, Chrysler and Citroen, mentioned its goal of making all passenger car sales in Europe electric by 2030. In the US, he wants “50 percent of BEV passenger car and light truck sales” in the same time frame.
Maksim Pikat, Purchasing and Supply Chain Director at Stellantis, said: “Reliable source of raw materials and battery supply will strengthen the value chain for manufacturing Stellantis EV batteries.”
Stellantis’ plans for electric vehicles put it in competition with Elon Musk’s Tesla and Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors.
According to the International Energy Agency, sales of electric vehicles will reach a record level this year. Industry expansion and other factors are creating challenges when it comes to battery supplies, which are critical for electric vehicles.
“The rapid rise in electric vehicle sales during the pandemic has tested the resilience of the battery supply chain, and Russia’s war in Ukraine has exacerbated the problem,” the IEA noted, adding that prices for materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel “increased. ”
“In May 2022, lithium prices were more than seven times higher than at the beginning of 2021,” the report said. “The key drivers are unprecedented demand for batteries and the lack of structural investment in new capacity.”
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In April, the CEO and president of Volvo Cars predicted that battery shortages would be a major problem for his industry, telling CNBC that the company had invested to help it gain a foothold in the market.
“We recently made a significant investment in Northvolt so that we can control our own battery supply as we move forward,” Jim Rowan told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe.
“I think battery supply will be one of the shortage issues in the next few years,” Rowan added.
“This is one of the reasons we are investing so much in Northvolt so that we can not only control supply but also start developing our own battery chemistry and manufacturing facilities.”
On Monday, the Mobilize Groupe Renault brand announced plans to launch an ultra-fast charging network for electric vehicles in the European market. It is known that by mid-2024, Mobilize Fast Charge will have 200 sites in Europe and will be “open to all electric vehicles.”
Developing adequate charging options is seen as crucial when it comes to the difficult perception of range anxiety, a term that refers to the idea that electric vehicles can’t travel long distances without losing power and getting stuck.
According to Mobilize, the European network will allow drivers to charge their vehicles 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “Most stations will be at Renault dealerships less than 5 minutes from the motorway or motorway exit,” he added.
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