A cobalt squeeze is threatening the electric vehicle market

Electric vehicle investors and enthusiasts tend to focus on a single metric - electric vehicle sales - when trying to measure the pace of global electrification. However, they tend to ignore another, equally important part of the global electrification process: the number of EV charging points. Despite significant advances in battery technology over the past decade, many people looking to switch to EVs still cite the range limitation as their biggest concern, which essentially means they are concerned that their EVs won't make it until the next one Create a charging station before they run out of juice. EV enthusiasts around the world will therefore be delighted to learn that the global inventory of EV charging stations has grown to 1 million, with the total doubling in just three years, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). With the current worldwide EV fleet of ~ 8.5 million, there is only one charging station for every nine electric vehicles. However, the distribution of these charging points is unevenly distributed regionally: According to Bloomberg, most new charging stations will be built in China and Europe, with North America lagging behind in the regions with the largest EV fleets. Roughly half of the world's electrical outlets are currently in China, while the Netherlands has more charging points than the United States, though they have fewer licensed EVs thanks to a less robust public subsidy and support in the US. The EU has set a goal of installing 1 million public chargers inside the block by 2025. And the alarming news: the prices of cobalt, a key element in EV batteries, have soared recently as the Covid-19 lockdowns in southern Africa have created severe supply chain bottlenecks.