Canada might take a leading role in the battery metals industry

"Canada has great potential to take a leading role in the global market for Li-ion batteries," says a new analysis by Roskill. The research firm released this finding after Lion Electric, a manufacturer of all-electric trucks and buses, announced plans to build a $ 185 million battery factory and innovation center in Quebec.   The project is expected to receive a combined C $ 100 million investment from the federal and provincial governments and is scheduled to begin operations in early 2023. According to Lion, the factory will produce battery packs and modules from lithium-ion cells, which should lead to a significant reduction in vehicle manufacturing costs, which will particularly affect the development of electric vehicles for heavy goods vehicles. Annual production capacity is projected to be 5 gigawatt hours of battery storage, which means the company will be able to electrify around 14,000 medium and heavy commercial vehicles annually. "Building an EV battery plant in Quebec would be a critical step in the advancement of Canada's Li-ion battery ecosystem, which would fuel cell production in the country and further localize the supply chain," said the Roskill report. "Cell and module production was relatively weak across Canada's supply chain for Li-ion batteries. Based on the announced production plans through March 2021, Roskill's analysis shows that Canada will generate only 0.03% of the world's Li-ion batteries by 2030. Battery cell capacity. " According to the researcher, if projects like Lion Electric's are replicated across the country, Canada could take a lead in the EV revolution, especially given its large mineral reserves and manufacturing capabilities for key battery raw materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, copper and Graphite. "To date, Canada has mainly exported these raw materials to Asia in the form of mineral concentrates, with very little value added for the production of lithium-ion battery materials (precursor, cathode and anode) in Canada," the document says. If Canada started working on processing these raw materials, it would be in a privileged position to build a more sustainable EV battery supply chain, given the high proportion of clean electricity fed into the country's grid. Currently, the Great White North is the world's third largest producer of hydropower, with 67% of its electricity coming from renewable sources and 82% from non-greenhouse gas sources. "With Li-ion battery demand soaring around the world, Roskill believes Canada has a unique opportunity to become a major hub for Li-ion battery materials and even cells in the North American EV supply chain, although still significant investment is required to achieve this status, "the report said.