I’m Steve LeVine, I wrote THE POWERHOUSE: America, China, and the Great
Battery War (Penguin), a real-time thriller about the worldwide race to
perfect the next engine of economic growth, the advanced lithium-ion
battery.
Abstract
Hi Reddit, I’m a writer at Quartz. My beat is the intersection of
geopolitics, energy, science and technology. Today, oil prices are
around $33 a barrel, and most analysts think the highest they’ll go
this year is another $10–up to $43, which is much lower than it was
when I started looking seriously at advanced batteries. That was around
six years ago. Batteries caught my eye because I kept seeing the
presidents and prime ministers of countries assert that they–their
nation–was going to dominate what they predicted were big battery or
electric car industries. That was the US (Obama), China (Hu), Japan and
about a dozen more, and the numbers they tossed around for how much
these industries would be worth were enormous. They were the size of
Google’s annual revenue at the time. The kind of wealth that could move
geopolitics. I persuaded one of the federal US labs–Argonne, near
Chicago–to let me sit with its battery team for a year while they
worked on creating the big breakthrough that would bring on this age.
Argonne’s credential is that its battery material–NMC–is in the Chevy
Volt. It stretched to two years. By the end–and through today–Argonne
did not create the big breakthrough (nor did anyone else). The electrics
and hybrids that have been introduced have not gone viral. And, as we
started with, oil prices are about 75% lower than they were when it was
thought that economy–saving gasoline–would be a big impetus for the
electric car age. So was the battery and electric car talk back then a
bunch of hype? In some cases, definitely, and we can get into that. I’ve
done some work on a couple of the hypesters. But my own theory–and it’s
based on what I’m watching–is that we are entering a natural, second
stage of the mainstreaming of electric cars. Batteries are one
thing–the researchers I talk to don’t have a lot of confidence that
they are close to a big leap. Nor do they see anything on the horizon
that creates the big electrochemical advance. They are still at the
bench, working away. But–and we can get into this–the manufacturers
are going ahead anyway. The pure electric Chevy Bolt, introduced a
couple of weeks ago at CES in Las Vegas, was an example of this. It will
go 200 miles on a charge and cost $30,000 after the federal subsidy.
That is mainstream distance and price. It’s based on advances on the
factory floor–engineering with the cars, and tinkering with the
batteries. So I see the possibility that the last half of the decade
proves to be a tipping point for electrics. A wild card is Apple. It’s
stealthily building its pure electric Titan, aiming for launch in 2019
or so. If it does launch, that will mean serious resonance for
mainstream electrics. I will be back at 1 pm EST (10 am PST, 6 pm UTC)
to answer your questions, ask me anything! Endnote: It’s after 3 pm now.
I am going to sign off for a couple of hours. I’ll return this evening
and answer more questions if they are there. Meanwhile, thanks so much
for signing on. I really enjoyed the experience. Best Steve