The Big Business Of Energy For The EV Industry

Energy and battery technology is booming.

As U.S. automakers make bold long-term commitments to electrify their fleets, there may not be enough lithium-ion batteries to go around in the short-term. While China dominates the battery manufacturing supply chain, and Europe is working to catch up, the U.S. still lags far behind. As batteries become a matter of energy independence and national security, here’s what the U.S. can do to catch up.

Analysts estimate that the size of the EV battery industry will grow to around $70 billion by 2025, and there’s a number of innovative battery start-ups trying to grab a piece of the pie. One of these companies, Cuberg, is making lithium-metal batteries, which it says will be twice as energy dense as standard lithium-ion, and could therefore help electric vehicles become cheaper and more efficient. Because Cuberg’s tech is largely compatible with existing lithium-ion manufacturing processes, it has the potential to scale quickly. And if it does, we could see lithium metal batteries powering small planes and electric vehicles within the decade.

Elon Musk announced that Tesla was getting into the energy business in 2015, and now it’s betting that it will become increasingly important for the company. In 2020, it surpassed 3 gigawatt hours of energy storage deployments in a single year, largely due to the popularity of Megapack, its utility-scale battery product. CNBC visited PG&E’s Tesla Megapack site in Moss Landing, California and learned why energy storage systems like Tesla’s could be everywhere in a future of renewable power.

Energy is also coming from unlikely sources. Bioo is generating electricity from the organic matter in soil and creating biological batteries to power agricultural sensors, a growing $1.36 billion global market. Eventually, Bioo envisions a future where biology could help to power our largest cities.

SEGMENTS:
00:00 -- How Tesla Is Quietly Expanding Its Energy Storage Business
20:37 -- How Soil Could Be An Untapped Source Of Electricity
30:28 -- Why This Battery Breakthrough Could Make EVs Cheaper
42:11 -- Why the U.S. EV Industry is facing a battery shortage

About CNBC: From 'Wall Street' to 'Main Street' to award winning original documentaries and Reality TV series, CNBC has you covered. Experience special sneak peeks of your favorite shows, exclusive video and more.

Connect with CNBC News Online

#CNBC

The Big Business Of Energy For The EV Industry

[dcbel]

So many new technologies are worked on for the future of batteries and #EVs ! Fascinating documentary, thank you for sharing! ⚡🔌🔋

[GenealogistBuchanan]

Much of this is last year's news. The SK vs LG dispute has been resolved. Basically SK agreed to pay LG enough to cover LGs liability for their batteries catching fire in GM vehicles..

[CptKillJack]

From what I could find SK and LGs dispute has ended in a Settlement leading to both companies working together for further innovation. The topic ended nearly halfway through 2021.

[lcmlcm]

I really enjoy information about the future and up coming companies. Thanks

[davidwilkie]

Returned to a standard of quality reporting that went missing for some years, thanks.

[frankcoffey]

This is an excellent presentation, comprehensive yet concise enough to hold my interest. Well done. Congrats to the entire production team.

[offyrkm]

This video is pure gold! It had me hooked from start to finish. The content is so engaging and well-presented. Props to the creator for their outstanding talent. I'll definitely be coming back for more!

[quimblyjones]

Oooh, these Tesla advertisements are getting really in depth.

[theunknownunknowns]

Be good if you up dated this episode. The biggest ever investment in energy was in 2022 for offshore wind. And Tesla energy profits are starting to ramp, after being flat for a couple of years, as shown in Q4 2021 earnings.

[oxjfxlk]

Your video is a real treasure trove of knowledge and support for beginners. Under your leadership, we are ready to reach the stars!

[migo-migo]

Thank you for putting this story together. The Tesla community has been talking about these for almost 10 years now, but Tesla never really publicizes all the good things they do, so they get a lot of haters because they're a popular company. The people who really dig in and fact check know that Tesla is a good company and is looking a the long term improvement of Earth. These people have also been rewarded by investing in Tesla. Glad to see some positive coverage on Tesla, it'll be useful for people who just read headlines and never really dig into the company's history and just hate on Tesla based on what they hear from their friends and other liars.

[wilsonjudson]

The wisest thing that should be on every wise individual's list is to invest in different stream of income and don't depend on the government to bring in money especially now the pandemic is hitting the economy

[kantameena]

Tesla has changed the world of Batteries

[ebsackpaulschimm]

Very well structured, everything is logical and understandable.

[frankcoffey]

Storage is very important at every level, the utility level, the home level, and the car. CA will never have to worry about being "Enroned" again and Texas won't have to worry about killer blackouts.

[malibongwenkunkuma]

As a South African, I believe Africa will prove to be the best place to implement these modern technologies. Especially, Bio technology. Regenerative farming technologies are the future.

[jon]

The lack of factories is only scratching the surface of the supply chain independence issue, a lithium battery factory is of little use without lithium after all.

[alienhawkq]

What are the problems with older technologies for storing energy? For large scale (city size) maybe melt salt or lift a very heavy object during the day and used the heat or gravity to create energy when demand is high? For a home or a group of homes, expensive batteries make sense, but for a city, wouldn't it be cheaper using old school technologies?

[BryceLovesTech]

I love my Tesla and I charge it for free at my neighborhood supercharger

[kaou]

Nice video summarizing the powerful emerging trend in Energy. One quick note: at around the 23:16 mark, the potato Battery is introduced where it’s asserted that acid in the potato are converted to energy…. That seems to be asserted in popular websites too. However this is false. Not that in the instructions for the classic potato battery, 2 different metals are used — for example, one steel and the other copper. The voltage is created by the two different metals connected by the wires (with a mini light bulb or LED) and electrolyte - the potato in this case is the electrolyte. So it’s better thought off as the potato electrolyte experiment though it doesn’t sound catchy. To do a quick check, try doing the same experiment with one type of metal only, and measure the voltage — should be close to zero, and voltage is low or zero so that even the LED would not light up.