April 24, 2022 – Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe has the worst news yet saying, “Semiconductors are a small appetizer to what we are about to feel on battery cells over the next two decades.”
Scaringe believes the compacted timeline for switching millions of personal vehicle sales from ICE to battery-electric is going to expose the lack of preparedness along the entire battery supply chain, from mining to producing the final packs. Right now, “90% to 95% of the supply chain does not exist” to furnish the targets governments and OEMs have set for a decade from now.
Lithium-ion battery demand has risen an average of 37% every year since 2015. Lithium is earning its nickname as “white gold,” the quest for it pushing developments that could become for minerals what fracking is to oil, causing controversy among climate groups.