Dear Reader,
New York City is waging a war against lithium batteries.
Last week, another fire — this one deadly — swept through an apartment building in the Upper Manhattan neighorhood of Harlem killing one and injuring 17.
With the dead being a young Indian journalist, the media wasn’t shy about turning it into headline material.
Here’s just a sampling of the first page of results searching for ‘lithium batteries’.
The suspected culprit, a faulty E-bike battery, has become the bane of the FDNY as a grey market for refurbished lithium-ion batteries continues to expand in parallel with the e-bike sharing industry.
It’s that gray market, which appears to be more prevalent in NYC than in any other American city, that’s driving the now near daily rate of lithium-ion fires.
You’ve probably heard me go on about lithium-ion batteries, lithium production as an investment thesis, and lithium-ion alternatives too.
What Is The Plain Truth About Lithium-Ion Batteries?
I know it’s a lot to digest, but there is a way to clear up your thinking.
There are three absolute truths which you need to keep in mind when reading any material regarding the future of the battery industry.
- Lithium as a crucial raw material for rechargeable batteries isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, even if lithium-ion itself is supplanted in the next few years.
- Despite the frequency of the fires you see in the press, lithium-ion batteries very rarely fail on that level.
- The main driving force behind next-gen batteries isn’t fire risk but charge speed and energy density.
Now, take those three rules and apply them to your market strategy and you come up with several fairly airtight conclusions:
- Lithium as an investment will be valid for years to come.
- Next generation batteries will always have a place in the market, given that performance and economy warrant the change.
With lithium prices crawling at ground level after shedding close to 80% in a massive post-bubble sell-off, just about every lithium operation that’s still in business after the collapse will see gains in the coming 12-24 months. So your options are vast and varied when it comes to that.
Invest In What You Know Is Real Today; Speculate On What’s Coming Next
With regard to next-generation batteries, I chose the one that requires no lithium at all.
Because if we’re going to take the plunge into a potentially disruptive alternative, why not find one that’s a complete departure from the current standard?
No Lithium cathode. No liquid electrolyte. None of the elements which make lithium-ion batteries dangerous or troublesome.
One that I’ve been following is an Australian company that’s pioneering Graphene battery tech, and the numbers they’re producing with their early sample models are highly impressive:
- Energy density 3-5x higher than lithium-ion
- Charge/discharge cycle lifespan 3-5x higher
- Charge speed up to 70x faster
Can you imagine charging your phone or car in less than one minute? That’s exactly the sort of potential we’re looking at here.
On top of that, the batteries use no lithium whatsoever, which makes the company, and the product completely independent of potential Chinese involvement in the supply chain — a big achievement in today’s world — and the fire risk is non-existent.
You’ve Never Heard Of This Company… But The Chinese Are Already Afraid
This company is in the process of getting their first commercial production run of coin and pouch format batteries done and shipped, and full scale commercialization could be achieved this year.
What makes all of this possible, however, is even cooler than the batteries themselves.
The company has its own method for producing the necessary graphene.
Once a super costly process, making graphene roughly twice the price of gold, today it’s been reduced by orders of magnitude, and requires nothing more than natural gas and electricity.
Which means batteries aren’t the only products this company makes.
Like most other stocks that aren’t listed on the Nasdaq and NYSE, this company’s stock has been beaten up pretty hard this last year.
Today it trades between 1/500 and 1/1000 the market capitalizations of major Chinese and Korean battery manufacturers, and yet, the potential to disrupt the entire market is very real.
What to learn more?
Consider this the beginning of your due diligence. Fortune favors the bold, Alex Koyfman His flagship service, Microcap Insider, provides market-beating insights into some of the fastest moving, highest profit-potential companies available for public trading on the U.S. and Canadian exchanges. With more than 5 years of track record to back it up, Microcap Insider is the choice for the growth-minded investor. Alex contributes his thoughts and insights regularly to Energy and Capital. To learn more about Alex, click here.
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