#SaudiArabia’s EV Battery Bets Are a Warning to Those Going Slow on Clean Energy - Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia’s EV Battery Bets Are a Warning to Those Going Slow on Clean Energy - Bloomberg

The world’s oil capital wants to go electric and get clean. To do so, it’s getting its hands on minerals critical for batteries and taking a stake in the electric vehicle-supply chain. That should put countries and companies prone to announcing ambitious plans but then doing little to make them a reality on high alert.

As shortages loom and firms attempt to secure prohibitively expensive resources in a bid to scale up manufacturing, Saudi Arabia has drawn in lithium miners and battery makers to set up operations, filling a critical gap. The country wants 30% of cars on its capital city’s roads to be electric by the end of this decade.

Australian battery chemicals and technology company EV Metals Group Plc said it was kicking off the development of its processing plants for lithium hydroxide monohydrate — a key compound for batteries — deepening its plans in the kingdom. The firm has worked with its partners for the past two years on feasibility studies, and the facility now plans to produce high-grade chemicals for cathode materials in powerpacks, an important component that EV makers are trying to get their hands on. Another Australian firm, Avass Group, announced it signed an agreement in February to jointly manufacture electric vehicles and lithium batteries with the country.

Along with these commitments, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources has announced $6 billion of projects as part of a larger push to boost its mining industry. It’s also processing almost 150 exploration license applications from foreign companies. The government signed an agreement to buy as many as 100,000 electric vehicles over 10 years from Lucid Group Inc, an EV maker that the country’s sovereign wealth fund has a stake in. It is allocating more than $3 billion in financing and incentives to set up the plant over the next decade and a half. Foxconn Technology Group, the largest assembler of iPhones, was in talks to establish a $9 billion facility that could make chips and EV parts.