A 500% increase in the price of lithium which has pushed new energy vehicle manufacturers to raise prices over the last two months is not expected to harm the prospects for electric vehicle (EV) sales in China, reports the South China Morning Post. The retail prices of nearly 30 models sold in China have been raised since January, by between 1.4 and 13.9%, according to a tally by Fitch Ratings.
Contemporary Amperex (CATL), a lithium-ion battery producer in Fujian province, has raised the price of the batteries that make up nearly half the cost of an electric car to cope with surging materials costs, said sustainability data and research provider Miotech in a report on April 9.
But the resulting rise in EV prices is unlikely to put off Chinese motorists keen to make the switch to environmentally-friendly cars, analysts said. “Chinese EV deliveries are likely to remain robust over the coming months with strong order backlogs, despite the recent price hikes due to surging battery costs,” Fitch Ratings’ analysts wrote in a report on April 4.
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