Industry frontier, annual copper demand for electric vehicles increases by another 1 million tons
Light electric vehicles with battery packs up to 100kWh use three to four times the amount of copper as their gasoline and diesel-powered equivalents: 80-85kg for the high-voltage battery and motor in an EV, compared with 20-25kg for the low-voltage wiring in an internal combustion engine vehicle . For a plug-in hybrid, the total amount of copper is about 60 kilograms, while all-electric trucks like upcoming Rivian and Hummer models with battery packs exceeding 180 kilowatt-hours could be twice that amount.
In a typical electric car, less than half of the copper is found primarily in the battery, primarily as foil for the anode material. Electrodeposited (ED) copper foil is considered best suited for battery applications due to its thinness, consistency and light weight, BMO Capital Markets noted in a report. The investment bank said this has led to a surge in newly announced ED copper foil manufacturing capacity, with an annual output of approximately 1 million tons announced in 2021 and will be brought into production within the next 5-7 years. BMO said that most ED copper foil manufacturing uses high-grade scrap, so competition for scrap copper will intensify, while the impact on refined copper may be relatively small.
Energy and metals research institute Wood Mackenzie expects terminal copper demand for passenger electric vehicles, including hybrids, to jump from about 600,000 tons in 2021 to about 2.9 million tons over the next decade. By comparison, approximately 21 million tons are mined annually and nearly 6 million tons of scrap copper are used in total. Copper prices were trending lower on Wednesday, trading around $4.40 a pound or $9,700 a ton in New York, shrugging off surprisingly strong U.S. growth data and China's return to stimulus mode.
