Extremely eye news reporter Zhang Yang
Since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the price of all kinds of materials has risen due to concerns about war.
The most obvious of these is the price of oil, while the price of another major raw material related to automobiles is also soaring, which has also affected the sales market of electric vehicles in Japan.
According to a report published by Japan's Kyodo News Agency on May 9, the statistics of Argus Media, a British valuation and analysis company, show that the price of rare metal lithium has soared to more than 5 times in the past year since April last year, and lithium is the main raw material used in pure electric vehicle (EV) on-board batteries.
Toyota Corporation President Akio Toyoda introduced the EV strategy and announced that he will invest about 4 trillion yen in EVs by 2030
Since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the logistics supply market has been disordered, and concerns about procurement difficulties have also exacerbated the rise in lithium prices.
According to Argus, lithium prices rose to about $89,000 per ton in April and rose to about $486,000 in April this year.
During the same period, cobalt rose to about 1.8 times and nickel to about 1.5 times. The main source of nickel is Russia, and the deterioration of the situation in Ukraine will lead to market forecasts that nickel will outstrip supply and demand, which has also contributed to a brief acceleration in its price.
Argus analyzed that in addition to the war factor, the price increase was mainly due to the surge in demand for pure electric vehicles in the market. At the same time, the prices of other rare metals used in battery manufacturing, such as cobalt and nickel, are soaring.
The analysis pointed out that last year, the world was advocating new energy and decarbonization, and all car companies also clearly put forward a posture of attaching importance to pure electric vehicles.
Japan's Toyota Motor Corporation announced in December last year that it would sell 3.5 million electric vehicles worldwide in 2030. Germany's Volkswagen also said it will build a number of battery factories in Europe.
A series of successive development plans have also boosted demand for rare metals, causing their prices to rise.
In the manufacturing cost of pure electric vehicles, the cost of batteries accounts for about 30% to 40% of them, so the price increase of a series of rare metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel is likely to lead to an increase in the price of electric vehicles, which will eventually lead to a slowdown in the popularity of electric vehicles.
While pure electric vehicles are seen as the hottest candidates for the next generation of cars, if the price of cars becomes higher due to rising battery costs, this is likely to pour cold water on the market sales that are heating up.
Mr. Kinoshita Shouying, a senior analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities, believes that if the price of raw materials such as rare metals continues to rise, then "the price of the whole vehicle needs to be raised by 30%, which is very unfavorable to the market development of electric vehicles."
Cars waiting for export in Japan
According to data recently released by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association Federation and the National Federation of Mini Car Associations, Japan's domestic new car sales in April decreased by 14.4% from the same period last year to 299,620 units, a year-on-year decline for 10 consecutive months.
Japan's four major automakers reported sales of 354051 new vehicles in the United States in April, down 27.5% from the same period last year. All four companies showed a decrease, with the exception of Mazda, all three showing double-digit declines.
This is mainly because under the influence of multiple factors such as war and epidemic, the supply chain chaos has led to difficulties in purchasing parts, which has limited the supply of new cars. The Japan National Federation of Mini Vehicle Associations pointed out that after May, it will continue to be affected by the shortage of spare parts and the epidemic, and "the situation is so complicated that the outlook is unpredictable."
Editor: Chen Xizi
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