Report: Electric Vehicles Will Drive Copper Demand

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The rapid growth in electric vehicles and their associated chargers will drive global copper demand by more than 560,000 tonnes by 2027.

New demand for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) also will see an increase of 102,000 tonnes of copper due to the vital role that copper continues play in port charging cables, charging units and wiring to electrical panels. New research from industry group International Copper Association (ICA) supports the growing role for copper as PEVs take off. According to Navigant Research, PEVs account for just 1-2% of all cars today, but this will grow rapidly to 14% by 2027, driven by technological developments, CO2 regulations and concerns around air pollution.

The ICA said that with "a greater number of cars comes a greater need for charging infrastructure, and copper's intrinsic values give it a dominant role in the market."

"This research underscores the vital role copper plays within PEV charging infrastructure," said Colin Bennett, global manager, Market Analysis and Outreach at ICA. "We are at an exciting moment for the copper industry as the PEV market grows and continues to have a positive impact on society."

John Gartner, director at Navigant Research, added: "The amount of copper inside residential charging units is modest compared to the wiring installed to connect chargers to electrical panels, meaning a change in deployment--from charging at home to commercial charging--could require four to nine times as much copper, depending on the extent of the shift."

Copper demand is expected to jump with support for charging deployments in multi-unit dwellings, workplaces and parking facilities. The ICA maintained that each high-power, direct-current charger drives 10-20 times the copper demand of other types. Higher power chargers will be needed to accommodate the shift toward larger-capacity battery packs. Demand for home chargers ranging from 7-11 kilowatts (kW) will grow while commercial chargers will have alternating current chargers up to 22 kW and fast-charging technology at greater than 50 kW. Car companies and local authorities also are working toward faster rollout of networks of fast charging stations, many with chargers of more than 100 kW and up to 350 kW.

Excluding China, PEV growth will be dominated by the European Union (EU) and the U.S. Industrial Info reported in March that Europe had announced financial backing for the region's largest planned electric battery production plant in Sweden. The European Investment Bank (EIB) approved a loan of 52.5 million euro ($68 million) to get the Skelleftea demonstration plant underway, with the goal of it becoming Europe's first 8-gigawatt hour (GWh) plant. The project is being developed by Northvolt (Stockholm, Sweden), formerly SGF Energy AB, which was formed by Peter Carlsson and Paolo Cerruti, two former senior executives at Tesla Motors Incorporated (NASDAQ:TSLA) (Palo Alto, California). It is expected to cost $4.3 billion to construct. For additional information, see March 1, 2018, article - Europe Funds First Battery 'Gigafactory'.

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