R. J. ScaringeCEO Rivian, one of the emerging electric vehicle companies, is warning of a future shortage of batteries and battery components. So big that the chip supply issues we’ve been experiencing since 2020 will seem like a little joke.
Scaringe explained this in an interview Wall Street Journal. “A slight imbalance in demand for semiconductors led to forced purchases by some multinational corporations, which ended in a crisis that continues to affect many industries, especially the automotive industry. The same thing will happen to batteries, but exponentially more seriously.”
Part of the reason, according to the CEO Rivianbecause the imbalance in the battery industry is increasing. This, as demand for electric vehicles increases more than previously thought, creates a future battery shortage.
Some like TeslaThey were able to predict the future. Nine years ago, they opened the Gigafactory in Nevada, dedicated entirely to the production of batteries. At the time, the move was regarded by many experts as suicidal. Not only external, but also some top managers panasonic, the company with which they collaborated in the construction of the plant. Still, Musk managed to secure a joint investment.
Today, many executives at automakers making the transition to electric vehicles would no doubt give an arm or a leg for the idea of setting up a battery factory nearly a decade ago to avoid future shortages.
Tesla not only obtained raw materials and components from its suppliers, but also began to produce its own batteries to meet the demand for them in the coming years.
According to R. J. Scaringe, they approach the problem in the same way, remaining indifferent to battery suppliers and purchasing cells from different companies.
“Many automakers with years of experience in managing large global production chains find themselves in a difficult situation. They are unable to obtain materials for the production of electric vehicles,” he explained in another interview, this time for CNBC.
Future battery shortage could be devastating for the automotive industry
The next few decades could prove extremely challenging for electric vehicle manufacturers. Especially if the necessary measures are not taken to produce enough batteries to cope with the increase in demand that will arise in the coming years and avoid shortages.
“This is the beginning of the end for petrol or diesel vehicles. It will come sooner rather than later, in about 20 years, and not in 50, as many predicted,” Rivian CEO explained in the same interview for CNBC.
Automakers will be forced to abandon the production of cars with internal combustion engines. According to the head of Rivian, not only because of the need to increase demand, but also because of possible pressure from shareholders and regulators. “Most countries will ban the sale of cars with petrol or diesel engines. The scale of this change is difficult to assess,” he explained. “Those enterprises that realize that the final cost of the internal combustion engine is zero will survive.”
For years, we’ve been talking about the fact that the lack of innovation among traditional automakers will be one of the reasons why their future could be in jeopardy. But it is becoming clearer every day that the lack of a vision for the electric future, and therefore the inability to provide enough raw materials and components to meet the demand for battery production, will lead to severe shortages. Surely this will be another reason why more than one may disappear. What nokia or blackberry when it was released iPhone and they couldn’t see the challenge they faced.
Source: Hiper Textual
