New Electric Partners Interview on The Future of EV Battery

AustCham Korea Chairman and Partner at New Electric Partners, Mr Ross Gregory, was recently featured in the Financial Times, expressing his opinion on the future of the EV battery industry and its reliance on China.

Goldman Sachs analysts believe that protectionist policies from the US and Europe, coupled with unprecedented spending by non-Chinese companies, will have the potential to eliminate the west’s reliance on Chinese battery materials by 2030.

Mr Gregory, who was interviewed by the Financial Times noted that despite the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August and the recent surge in gigafactory investment, the Goldman costs estimate appeared far too low, the timeframe was optimistic and the expectations for the impact of battery recycling were unrealistic.

“There’s some momentum forming, but there still isn’t a strong preparedness to invest upstream by anyone apart from Chinese players. As an example, there hasn’t been a notable Australian greenfield battery mining project developed with any foreign major investment at all,” he said, adding: “The likely growth of EV infrastructure in China over that period is going to be so massive that it will still outstrip Europe and the US”.

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