Lithium price: Tesla now sells 22% of world’s battery power

Adamas Intelligence tracks the battery capacity (and the metals used in them) of electric vehicles sold in more than 80 countries around the world, representing more than 90% of the global EV market.

The latest report by Toronto-based Adamas on global EV battery deployment in passenger vehicles should give Tesla skeptics, the ranks of which are still growing, pause.

Tesla is simply miles ahead of the competition. On a MWh-basis, the Muskmobile is not just shaming US and European competitors, but also the more than 400 EV manufacturers registered in China.

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Map of major producing mines and mine development projects of minerals used in Lithium Ion Batteries. Commodities include Lithium, Graphite and Cobalt. Map includes locations of 240+ producing mines, 45 development projects, 110+ projects in economic assessment, and 40 suspended mines.

In May this year, Tesla was responsible for 22% of all electric vehicle battery capacity deployed worldwide versus 18% a year ago according to Adamas data.

The Model 3 alone represented 16% of battery power hitting roads compared to 4% for no.2 BYD (Build Your Dream), the Chinese EV leader backed by Warren Buffett.

Teslas have always had bigger batteries than competitor cars to help with fast-charging and range and Adamas sees no slowdown in Tesla’s quest for battery power dominance:

In the first five months of 2018, there was just a single month in which Tesla deployed over 1 GWh of EV battery capacity, while over the first five months of this year there have been three, speaking to the automaker’s growing appetite for li-ion cells.

From January through May of this year, over 7 GWh of battery capacity was deployed globally in Tesla EVs. Inferring from the company’s strong Q3/Q4 sales record, Tesla is conservatively on track to exceed 20 GWh deployed by 2019 year-end.