Almost 20 years after Tesla, the first commercial e-car manufacturer, was founded, electric mobility is still basically in its infancy. That's because many automakers initially derided Tesla and only belatedly realized that the electromobile revolution was closer than they thought. Increasing movements toward an ever more carbon-free world also played into the electric enthusiasts' hands. In the face of an increasing number of extreme weather phenomena and a growing climate protection protest movement, more and more governments around the world felt compelled to set CO² targets and further reduce emissions of the climate-damaging gas from year to year. This left the global automotive companies with no choice but to finally tackle the electrification of their vehicle fleets. Today, well over 300 electric car models are already on the market worldwide. And even though the number of new electric vehicles registered each year in 2015 was still just 450,000 worldwide, rising to over 2.5 million vehicles by 2021, that's nothing compared to the number of units that are expected to be registered each year in the coming years. According to estimates by experts at Bloomberg, there will be 8.5 million in 2025, 26 million in 2030 and 54 million per year in 2040. At the beginning of 2022, there were around 12 million electric vehicles driving around on the world's roads, and the latest estimates put the figure at over 130 million by 2030. Electromobility is still in its infancy, but it is now starting to pick up speed.
However, one aspect of the upcoming electrorevolution is still largely unresolved: the procurement of materials for the corresponding mobile batteries. This is because large quantities of metals are needed for them that have so far found little or much less use in conventional vehicles with internal combustion engines. These include primarily the battery metals lithium, nickel, manganese and cobalt, as well as copper and graphite. Even now, when quantities are still at a rather low level, there is a threat of glaring supply bottlenecks, which have already caused prices for most of these materials and metals to skyrocket. Especially in the case of lithium and nickel, the mining industry is miles away from being able to satisfy the coming demand volumes. It is not for nothing that Tesla CEO Elon Musk literally begged corresponding mining companies in 2020 to develop new nickel mines. For investors, therefore, there is an excellent entry opportunity into the world of battery metals right now, as we will explain in detail below.
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