Lithium Fire Takes out Bronx Supermarket

Dear Reader,

This past Sunday, a five-alarm fire sparked by a defective lithium-ion battery destroyed a supermarket in the Bronx, sending seven people to the hospital, including five firefighters. 

The supermarket was a complete loss, with structural failures leading to a roof collapse. 

Fires like this, some taking place in the middle of the night, have become commonplace in New York.

According to the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), failing lithium-ion batteries are now the third leading cause of fires in the five burrows, with 33 fires, 42 injuries, and three deaths already on the books in 2023.

The city is now expected to introduce new legislation to control the sale and distribution of second-hand batteries, including the No. 1 culprit — e-bike batteries. 

In a city with over 1,500 e-bike docking stations and an estimated 25,000 e-bikes in constant circulation via sharing apps, the effect on business is sure to be felt by vendors and clients alike.

These batteries, particularly the older, non-professionally refurbished variety, are quickly becoming the East Coast’s version of what the carelessly discarded cigarette is to residents of Southern California. 

Pandora's Box Is Open

The problem, of course, cannot ever be fully solved with regulation. 

Even the newest, smallest, best-constructed lithium-ion battery, once dropped or somehow else compromised, can fail. 

This includes smaller units like those found in vape pens, as well as larger varieties such as the kind giving life to the smartphone sitting on your desk right now. 

Any of them can catch fire spontaneously, and the dangers have long been known. 

That’s why airlines regulate the transportation of fully charged spare batteries and why many have flat-out banned the transportation of vape pens altogether.

This, of course, is only one major drawback of lithium batteries. Others include slow charging, short service life (only a few hundred charge/discharge cycles), and high production and recycling costs. 

Lithium-ion batteries were, quite simply, the best we could do at a time when a standardized solution was needed as far as rechargeable batteries. 

Thirty-two years after Sony released the first commercial lithium-ion battery, a successor to the throne has finally arrived. 

Lithium-Ion Was the Coal of the Wireless Revolution… Now Meet the Jet Fuel

Right now, an entirely new kind of battery is rolling off the assembly lines, getting ready to power the next generation of phones, laptops, and electric vehicles. 

The material at the heart of this new battery is a space-age nanostructure, meaning that it’s engineered on a molecular level. 

The resulting batteries are leaps and bounds beyond anything the lithium-ion world could ever dream of. 

I’m talking about a storage capacity increase of 2–3x, a service life increase of 3–5x, and a charge speed increase of 70x.

That’s no typo. One of these new batteries, whether it's powering your phone or driving your Tesla, can go from zero to 100% charged in less than a minute.

That's faster than you can pump your car full of gas.

And with the service life improvements, your average EV battery will outlast every other major component of the vehicle.

A company operating out of Brisbane, Australia, is behind this new technology, and when I said that these batteries are already coming off the assembly lines, I wasn’t joking.

Commercial-grade samples are being sent out to potential client companies for testing and evaluation.

If the results are in line with expectations, we could start seeing these “super-batteries” appearing in consumer goods in very short order.

For the company, which is still fairly small and virtually unknown outside of professional circles, this will be a transformative moment.

Remember Those Supply Chain Problems?

And one more thing… maybe the most important detail of all, given today's geopolitical climate…

Not only are these batteries technically superior, but because they can be produced in-house, without the need for lithium mining and refinement or any of the logistical support that goes hand in hand with all that, they can be manufactured quickly, cheaply, and independently of any potentially troublesome third parties.

In case you’re wondering which troublesome third party I’m alluding to, it’s none other than the Chinese Communist Party, which owns the bulk of the world’s lithium exploration.

With these new nanostructure cathodes, supply chain issues can be forgotten. 

This company is young and small, but it’s already publicly traded on two major North American exchanges. 

That means you could own its stock minutes from now if you were so inclined. 

Good investors always do their due diligence, however, and I urge you to do the same. 

To make things easier for you, my video team put together this quick, easy-to-understand presentation on the tech, the market, and the company behind it all. 

Access is free, instant, and requires no registration. 

Simply enter here.

Fortune favors the bold,

Alex Koyfman

Check us out on YouTube!

His flagship service, Microcap Insider, provides market-beating insights into some of the fastest moving, highest profit-potential companies available for public trading on the U.S. and Canadian exchanges. With more than 5 years of track record to back it up, Microcap Insider is the choice for the growth-minded investor. Alex contributes his thoughts and insights regularly to Energy and Capital. To learn more about Alex, click here.