Two weeks ago California state regulators announced the prohibition on the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035 to reduce carbon emission to fight climate change. It calls to mind the pleasure of seeing an array of luxury cars while cruising the 405 or 101 freeways of LA County.
Los Angeles to my mind has always been the mecca for car manufacturers and considered as the largest auto market in all of the 51 states. Maybe the absence of mass transportation like the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) lines in San Francisco could have contributed to this. It was only in the last decade, if my recollection is right, that LA County beefed up its Metro Rail System, which from the last time I was there I heard could be extended up to San Diego.
I marvel at the dynamism and the ever-evolving style of vehicles in LA, the electric cars and the PHEVs (Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle). Six years ago my sister-in-law Fe Estiandan, based in Northridge, San Fernando Valley, in Southern California already went around with a PHEV. The vehicle has a battery, an electric motor, a gasoline tank, and an internal combustion engine. PHEVs use both gasoline and electricity as fuel sources.
Gauging from the way global car manufacturers position their engineering and marketing tact, there wouldn’t be any or there would be fewer gasoline-powered vehicles by 2030. The International Energy Agency (IEA) foresees the need for the global battery and minerals supply chains to expand ten-fold to meet projected critical minerals demand by 2030.
IEA believes the industry needs to build 50 more lithium mines, 60 more nickel mines and 17 more cobalt mines by 2030 to meet global net carbon emissions goals. Pressure on the supply of critical materials will continue to mount as road transport electrification expands to meet net-zero ambitions. According to the IEA, demand for electric vehicle (EV) batteries will increase from around 340 GWh today to over 3500 GWh by 2030.
The shift to EVs is expected to increase the demand for nickel ore, which is one of the raw materials in making EV batteries.
No wonder then that diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. is embarking on a $500 million electric car battery plant in Dinagat Islands. It’s very clear that this early the company is eyeing to cash in on the burgeoning demand for EVs. The plant’s construction will start sometime this month.
Heard around the business community that Eramen Minerals Inc. is joining the fray, aiming to become another player in this industry. Eramen is in the thick of its technical and financial studies on building its own ore processing plants and will also eventually set up its own car battery plant.
Now, here's the thing, a muted industry source tells me that MetDev Pilipinas, a consulting company offering services in mining and mineral processing, has reportedly been doing benchmarking for Eramen. This after Eramen, along with Benguet Corp. among others, passed the mine audit. The buzz feed is that it is likely that the company would have its own ore processing plant early next year.
These developments all point to the rosy future of the nickel mining industry. This could also be why the government of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is so high on the development of the mining industry which it plans to ramp up. The industry is a potential source of sustained economic growth.
As the wheels of business continue to churn, I Iong to see preparations for a hybrid electric vehicle station with PHEV traversing the road networks of the metropolis.
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