“US Electric Vehicle and Sustainable Aviation Mobility Study Uncovers Barriers to Growth”
By Paul Lienert
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (Reuters) – Automakers may not be able to build as many EVs as they want – and consumer demand for those EVs may not materialize as quickly as expected – unless government and industry address convergence and solving problems, said a new study published on Tuesday.
Amidst these obstacles, a looming shortage of battery raw materials could put government contracts “in conflict with manufacturing reality” – one of the macro trends detailed in the 2023 Moving World Report published by investment firm UP.Partners.
Obstacles to accelerating electric vehicle production and demand in the United States include ongoing turmoil in global supply chains, inadequate vehicle charging infrastructure and a congested power grid, the 120-page report said.
The report notes that demand for EV batteries is expected to increase 10-fold or more by 2030, but that a “massive shift” between demand and supply of key materials like lithium, cobalt and nickel is likely to lower the cost of EVs to consumers will increase – a glaring realization when a global price war, sparked by market leader Tesla, escalates.
The study is based on dozens of interviews and cites technical and financial data from research studies by the International Energy Agency, US Energy Information Administration, McKinsey, Silicon Valley Bank, Carnegie Mellon University and others.
In line with its focus on “the movement of people and goods on the ground, in the air, at sea and in space”, UP.Partners looked beyond terrestrial vehicles to aviation, where it predicts the dramatic increase in cargo drone deliveries in 2022 noted and a potentially “crippling” shortage of pilots by 2030.
As airlines continue to pursue alternative technologies from batteries to hydrogen, Managing Partner Cyrus Sigari said sustainable aviation fuel is “the only sensible way” to reduce aviation’s carbon emissions over the next 20 years.
(Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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