Glencore says e-car boom coming faster than expected

Bloomberg

Glencore Plc Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg said the rise of electric cars will significantly boost demand for minerals including copper and lithium in the coming decades.
“The electric vehicle revolution is happening and its impact is likely to be felt faster than expected,” Glasenberg told investors at an industry conference in Barcelona. Almost all carmakers are increasing investm-ent in electric vehicles as governments adopt tighter emissions targets, he added.
Electric vehicles require more copper wiring than standard internal combustion engines. For example,
the battery in an electric car contains about 38 kilograms of copper, 11 kilograms of cobalt and 11 kilogra-
ms of nickel, according to Glencore. Those materials, along with maganese, stand to benefit from more
demand for electric cars, Glasenb-
erg said.
Demand is growing for battery-powered vehicles. European sales of alternative-fuel models, which include fully electric cars and hybrid vehicles, jumped 36 percent in the first quarter to 235,438 vehicles, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
Volkswagen AG will triple spending on developing alternatives to combustion engines to 9 billion euros ($9.8 billion) over the next five years. Daimler AG’s bill for the transformation stands at 10 billion euros. Peter Grauer, the chairman of Bloomberg LP, is a senior independent non-executive director at Glencore.