Canada Lithium / Car Battery Sales

Posted: February 18, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Lithium, Speculative | Tags: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments
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Image via CrunchBase

CLQ :

TSX : $0.91

While Telsa (TSLA) founder Elon Musk and the New York Times (NYT) continue their “Battle Royale” over a recent negative review of the Telsa Model S, Japanese consumers continue their aggressive uptake of hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles in the first 10 months of 2012.

For the period, automakers in Japan sold a total 789,267 hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles. Leading the sales charge was Toyota (TM), who sold 219,824 of its Aqua Hybrid model and 161,184 of its Prius Hybrid model in 2012. Honda Motors’ (HMC) Hybrid Fit also racked up solid sales, with consumers buying 107,244 for the year.

So while supporters and haters of plug-in electric vehicles continue it their embarrassing public exchange, consumer continue their acceptance of hybrids and growing acceptance of plug-in electric vehicles. With the majority of analyst paying attention to North American hybrid auto sales, which totalled 434,498 for 2012, the lithium industry is paying much more attention to Asian Hybrid and Plug-In electric sales.

Canada Lithium, which is entering the sweet spot as the soon-to-be and only North American publically-listed pure-play lithium producer, recently announced that commissioning of the mineral processing sections of the process plant, at the company’s Quebec Lithium Project, continues as scheduled with spodumene production being achieved on a regular basis and final electrical work and software programming being undertaken on the lithium carbonate circuits. CLQ continues to expect first shipment of lithium carbonate by end-March 2013. 

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Canada Lithium

Posted: February 7, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Precious Metals | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
English: 2011 Chevrolet Volt exhibited at the ...

English: 2011 Chevrolet Volt exhibited at the 2010 Washington Auto Show. The Chevy Volt is a plug-in hybrid (PHEV). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Canada Lithium

(CLQ : TSX : $0.88)
While January is typically a weak month for auto sales, due to end of year incentives, sales of hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles continued to grow year over year. For the month, hybrids continued to lead the way with 34,611 vehicles sold, putting the percentage of hydrids sold compared to total vehicle sales at 3.33%. Once again the Toyota/Lexus (TM) line-up dominated sales, with the Prius, Camry Hybrid, and the Lexus ES posting solid sales numbers.
Ford Motor (F) also grew sales, as its Fusion Hybrid and C-Max Hybrid growing in popularity. The 3.3% market share for hybrids is the highest since April 2012 and is in part due to new entrants in recent months including the VW Jetta Hybrid and the Toyota Avalon Hybrid. Sales of plug-in electrics came in at 4,376 vehicles, which was weaker as many buyers bought in December to qualify for tax deductibility on their 2012 return.

While overall sales declined 23% from the previous month, plugin electric sales declined at a 39.5% rate. However, when compared to January 2012, plug-in sales grew significantly more than overall sales, although the absolute volumes were modest. Also impacting plug-in electric sales were the availability of the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf. The Nissan Leaf will be limited in the first quarter given curtailed supplies from Japan and Tennessee, which will not ramp up to “regular” volumes until March or April. Volt volumes were down due to both product
availability and incentive activity in December that pulled sales ahead.

Lithium market participants, such as Canada Lithium monitor vehicle sales, as a hybrid vehicle contains 6 kg of lithium carbonate and a 40 kWh plug-in electric vehicle contains 24 kg of lithium carbonate. Lithium carbonate prices continue to be robust at approximately $6,000 per tonne.

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