Equity Research Industry Report
12 November 2009
Thus, there is a significant market for lithium vanadium phosphate batteries building in the near- to medium-term. We have already made predictions on electric vehicle adoption in our recent lithium industry report. While there is a wide disparity between other predictions on vehicle adoption, we would suggest that adoption may proceed more quickly than most expect; the combination of the novelty of fully electric/primarily electric vehicles combined with the cachet of driving a nonpolluting automobile is likely to work well when offsetting any perceived price differential between what a buyer gets for their hard-earned dollar when buying an electric vehicle versus a gasolinepowered car. Nissan has published the most extensive information available for any next-generation electric vehicle, to date. The Leaf is powered by a 24 kWh lithium-ion battery pack using lithium manganese oxide as the cathode material. The battery pack uses 192 cylindrical cells, manufactured by a joint venture between NEC and Nissan. NEC has been quoted as saying that the battery pack in the Leaf will use roughly 4 kg of lithium metal equivalent, or about 21 kg of lithium carbonate equivalent. NEC has also produced material safety data sheets for its new batteries that outline lithium use. These batteries use 37% lithium compounds by weight, including lithium hexaflurophosphate in the electrolyte along with lithium manganese oxide and lithium nickel oxide in the electrodes. Exhibit 11 11 – Portions of MSDS for Aluminum Laminated LithiumLithium-Ion Battery Battery Material Aluminum Carbon, amorphous powder Copper foil Diethyl carbonate Ethylene carbonate Methyl ethyl carbonate Lithium hexaflurophosphate Graphite powder Lithium manganese oxide Lithium nickel oxide Poly vinylidene fluoride Nickel and inert polymer
% 15 1 10 5 5 5 2 15 28 10 1 3
CAS Number 7429-90-5 7440-44-0 7440-50-8 105-58-8 96-49-1 623-53-0 21324-40-3 7782-42-5 12057-17-9 12031-65-1 24937-79-9 n/a
Source: NEC TOKIN Tochigi
Automotive use of vanadium in batteries could add as much as 26% to current demand by 2014.
On the basis of the figures in the MSDS, we can ascertain that the proportion of lithium, by number of atoms, used in the cathode, is 95%. The usage rate of lithium carbonate equivalent has been shown to be higher than what we had previously assumed in our lithium industry report, roughly 600 grams per kWh. The usage rate now stands at 880 grams per kWh of battery storage.
Jon Hykawy, Ph.D., MBA 647.426.1656 jhykawy@byroncapitalmarkets.com 10