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Mike Beck: Keynote: Parabolic Growth for Electric Vehicles is Now Beginning

Mike discusses the demand for electric vehicles and what the implications are for the battery metals. EV adoption is driven by emission standards, battery capacity, and the cost of vehicle production. Battery capacity is increasing while the price has been in rapid decline. As a result cost parity with ICE vehicles is very near. Tesla has achieved cost parity with ICE with its latest battery technology while the rest of the industry is about 12-18 months away.

The world is nearing the point where a conventional car will be considered inferior in features and overall cost. Manufacturing electric vehicles are considerably easier to build and assemble. The cost of an EV factory is about half the footprint and half the capital cost of a regular ICE factory

EV adoption in 2018 is at 3% of personal vehicles, and by 2025 that number will be 7-13%. The adoption curve is already accelerating. EV vehicles today represent just 3% of all private cars but already use more battery capacity annually than all the phones, tablets, and laptops.

Mike discusses the increasing demand in terms of mine supply for copper, lithium, and cobalt and the quantity needed for every vehicle.

Nickel needs significantly higher prices to incentivize mine growth. Nickel is the most critical component for electric vehicle batteries as battery makers are increasing there use of the metal. More nickel units will be needed by 2023, and there isn’t any in the pipeline. There is a shortage coming that is relatively imminent.

Time Stamp References:
1:00 – Unprecedented demand for battery metals coming.
2:00 – Government emission standards.
3:20 – Battery prices decreasing cost parity with ICE.
5:00 – EV will cost less than regular vehicles soon.
6:45 – EV are cheaper to build and assemble.
9:20 – Adoption curve accelerating.
11:50 – Coming demand for battery metals.
13:00 – Lithium demand.
14:50 – Cobalt demand.
16:00 – Structural deficit for nickel.
18:00 – Looming shortage of nickel coming.
20:00 – Copper demand picture.
22:00 – Position in the nickel space.

Talking Points From This Week’s Episode
• Capacity has increased while declining in price by six-fold.
• There will be a dramatic increase in demand for electric vehicles soon.
• One electric vehicle has a battery capacity of 10000 cellphones.
• There are staggering demand requirements for battery metals.
• His nickel equity pick is Giga Metals Corporation TSX-V: GIGA.

Mike Beck is the founder and Managing Director of Regent Advisors LLC, a corporate finance advisory and investment firm. He has advised on equity and debt financings for private and public companies in the natural resources sector, including Signet Petroleum Limited, West African Minerals Corporation, Polo Resources Limited, Direct Petroleum Exploration Inc., Titanium Resources Group, Copper Development Corporation, UraMin Inc., Diamond Fields International Ltd., Weda Bay Minerals Inc., Regent Pacific Group Limited and CCEC Ltd.

Mr. Beck was a Managing Director at N M Rothschild & Sons with responsibility for the firm’s mining, oil and gas advisory and investment activities. Before that, Mr. Beck was the founder and President of Librion Group Inc., a corporate finance boutique. He also was with the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group, where he oversaw the structuring and financing of a large number of natural resource projects in Africa. Mr. Beck has also been a founder or co-founder of several companies listed on the Canadian, Australian, and London stock exchanges. He has an M.S. in Engineering from Princeton University and a B.S. (High Honors) in Engineering from Rutgers University.

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