The silvery-white element is the lightest metal and highly reactive, giving it strong energy storage potential per unit of weight.
This makes the alkali metal the mainstream choice for EV batteries, where high energy density is key to enabling long distances between charging.
Australia is the world's largest lithium producer, but Chile has by far the largest known reserves. Other countries with major deposits are Argentina, China and the United States.
WHERE IS LITHIUM FOUND?
Lithium is abundant, but it takes substantial funding to extract it from ore or brine. Strong output and weak demand for EVs in China has depressed prices in recent months.
IS LITHIUM EXPENSIVE?
Battery grade lithium prices LTHc1 touched record levels of $85,000 a tonne in December, but have slumped by nearly 50% since then. That price is still relatively high, around double the price in October 2021.
A range of batteries that need less or no lithium have been under development and the most advanced is the sodium-ion battery.
CAN WE PRODUCE BATTERIES WITHOUT LITHIUM?
The materials to make sodium-ion batteries are much cheaper, but the batteries have a lower energy storage capacity.
EV battery makers have developed multiple types of lithium battery products. A battery is charged and discharged by lithium ions moving between the negative and the positive electrodes.
WHAT TYPES OF EV BATTERIES ARE THERE?
Other key metals used in EV batteries are cobalt, nickel phosphate and manganese.
A lithium-ion EV battery pack on average contains about 8 kg of lithium and about 2 billion EVs need to be on the road by 2050 for the world to meet net zero goals, says IEA.
HOW MUCH IS LITHIUM DEMAND EXPECTED TO RISE?
Lithium demand is expected to balloon to 3 million tonnes a year by 2030 from only 300,000 tonnes in 2020.