Light Electric Vehicles with batteries up to 100 kwh use three to four times as much copper as the equivalent of gasoline and diesel power: high-voltage batteries and motors weigh 80-85 kg in electric vehicles, and low-voltage wires weigh 20-25 kg in internal-combustion vehicles. For Plug in hybrid vehicle, the total amount of copper is about 60 kilograms, and all electric trucks with batteries of more than 180 kilowatt hours, like the upcoming Rivian and Hummer models, could double that.

In a typical electric car, less than half of the copper is found mainly in batteries and used as foil for anodes. Due to its thinness, consistency and light weight, electrodeposited (ED) copper foil is considered the most suitable for battery applications, BMO Capital Markets said in a report. This has led to a surge in newly announced manufacturing capacity for ED copper foil, the investment bank said, with 2021 announcing production of about 1M tonnes a year and expected to start production in the next five to seven years. According to BMO, ED copper foil is produced mostly from high-grade scrap, so competition for scrap copper will increase and the impact on refined copper may be small. Wood Mackenzie, the energy and Metals Research Group, expects end-of-life copper demand for passenger electric vehicles, including hybrid vehicle, to jump from about 600,000 tonnes of 2021 to about 2.9 m tonnes over the next decade. That compares with about 21m tonnes mined annually and almost 6M tonnes of copper scrap used. On Wednesday, copper prices were on a downward trend, trading in New York at about $4.40 a pound, or $9,700 a ton, after surprisingly strong U.S. growth figures and China’s return to stimulus mode. 

Source: SMM