Volkswagen to invest over $1 billion on a battery production plant in Germany
Volkswagen will invest almost 1 billion euros (US$1.1 billion) in battery cell production at a facility in western Germany and is seeking to simplify the group by spinning off or selling units, the automaker said on Monday. Volkswagen said in a statement after a supervisory board meeting it would set up the battery facility in... View Article
Tesla expects global shortage of electric vehicle battery minerals
Tesla Inc expects global shortages of nickel, copper and other electric-vehicle battery minerals down the road due to underinvestment in the mining sector, the company’s global supply manager for battery metals told an industry conference on Thursday, according to two sources.
Chinese electric car maker BYD’s first-quarter profit up 632 percent
Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD Co Ltd, backed by U.S. investor Warren Buffett, reported on Sunday a 632 percent jump in its first-quarter net profit, buoyed by strong demand for its new energy vehicles. The Shenzhen-based car and battery maker, which has a joint venture with Daimler AG in China, said last month it expected... View Article
September 3, 2018
The ASX will flick the switch on a Battery Technology & Lithium themed Exchange Traded Fund on Monday in a development that will both capitalise on, and stoke the growing interest, in electric cars. The Battery Technology & Lithium ETF will trade under the code ACDC in a nod to the firm’s Australian founder Graham Tuckwell and his love of the Australian hard-rock band.
ACDC will contain 28 stocks including four lithium miners. The remaining stocks are battery plays from a list compiled by the US Department of Energy database of companies active in grid-connected energy storage projects. ETF Securities Australia head Kris Walesby said the ETF tracks the Solactive Battery Value-Chain Index, an index already used in Europe by competitor Legal & General for an ETF that launched in 2018 and has attracted $25 million. ETF Securities Australia manages more than $1 billion for local investors.
Among the 28 equally weighted stocks are Tesla, BMW, Nissan, GE, Samsung SDI, NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi Chemical, Sony, Mitsubishi Electric and Orocobre. Mr Walesby noted that with world stores of lithium forecast to last 183 years the number of miners included in the ETF has been capped. ACDC aims to deliver investors with a diversified exposure to the electric vehicle theme in order to offset the wild swings and gyrations that individual stocks like Tesla and lithium miners like Orocobre frequently deliver.