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Toyota update re lithium and ore long term plans

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    This article / interview was released over the weekend by Reuters.

    https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1TM1EY

    the key key takeaways are in my mind are:
    1) Toyota (one of the worlds biggest auto makers) are 100% committed to orecobre as their sole partner for lithium, they explicitly state that their primary plan is to expand ore into phase 3 by building another plant if ev use grows as expected over the next 2 years and lithium demand is high.
    they clearly state they have no interest in partnering with or taking over any other lithium miners. This is a remarkable endorsement of ore.

    2) phase 3 is very much on the table in Toyota and ore’s mind. As they say, they can just build another plant and some more ponds and they will learn lessons from phase 1-2. They can decide in 2-3 years whether to also expand their lioh plant in naraha depending on the markets preferred trend at that time in cathode composition for carbonate or hydroxide, and whether the hydroxide premium has been eroded to the point that ore is better off producing more carbonate or hydroxide in phase 3.

    3) finally, I agree with Toyota that it is impossible right now to know whether ev’s will continue to grow as fast as previously and whether they will break into the mainstream. This depends on a few factors which are impossible to be sure of:
    i) the rollout of public charging infrastructure
    ii) the advent of rapid charging stations at petrol/ service stations
    iii) regulatory subsidies and environmental controls over time in China, Europe, USA, Australia, etc
    iv) how hard the traditional auto companies push their EV ranges in terms of advertising and reducing ice models to change public acceptance/ opinion.

    then there is always the X factor of gigafactories for national energy storage (topical in Australia now) and individual household stationary storage eg for power walls for domestic electricity use from solar panels.

    anyway, this looks like a bullish sign for ore to have the complete confidence and 100% loyalty of a global giant auto partner and signals that if ev sales are growing as expected in 2 years then Toyota will proceed with phase 3 with ore.
 
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