Lithium enthusiastic Dakota Minerals‘ acquisition of a tenement plan in Portugal was in part driven by a surprising concept– president David Frances thinks Tesla Motors will not exist in 10 years.
Frances stated when Dakota, a Perth-based lithium explorer, was weighing up where to make a project acquisition, it was not wooed by the need potential customers of North America, unlike much of the mining business hurrying to peg ground near the US-based automaker’s Nevada lithium ion battery “gigafactory”.
“The only thing I could see was great deals of gas at $2 a gallon and lots of guys driving around in V8 monster trucks and it is hard to see these guys are going to drive Tesla’s,” he said.
” There are most likely niche markets however mainly I don’t think the United States is going to be the early adopter of electric cars.”
Although in Europe Frances states the population seemed driving the “paradigm shift” toward electrical automobiles, solar and house energy storage systems with the German automobile market poised to make the most of increasing regional demand.
Daimler revealed in May it would spend EUR500 million on a new German lithium-ion battery factory and in July, stated it had sped up advancement of premium electrical cars to compete Tesla.
There has likewise been persistent speculation Volkswagen plans to develop a factory after it revealed a plan to release more than 30 new electric cars by 2025, offer two to three million a year from 2025 and develop battery innovation as a new competency.
Frances thinks a Portugal-based lithium project that can provide a European battery factory with a local, protected source of supply would be a valuable asset.
While Tesla might have set the bar for the German auto industry, Mr Frances stated they are most likely to beat it at its own game.
” I don’t think Tesla will be around in 10 years’ time,” he said.
” I think they have aimed to do excessive. [Tesla CEO] Elon Musk is a fantastic visionary however I believe Daimler has a far better track record and has just gotten on and done exactly what Elon has been talking about. Yes Tesla have automobiles on the roads however there are power walls and now he is taking on the solar world and all the rest of it.
“When it pertains to something like Daimler versus Tesla, Daimler is going to win every day of the week. I believe in 10 years’ time Tesla certainly will not be the leader and most likely won’t be around anymore.”
Tesla delivered 50,658 automobiles in 2015, anticipates to produce 80,000 this year and, in a remarkable step-up, 500,000 in 2018.
