This Google Search Is a Reality Check

Dear Reader,

You know your reputation is questionable when a simple Google search of your name brings up an entire page of references to fires and explosions. 

Incredibly enough, a Google search of lithium ion, today’s industry-standard rechargeable battery type, does just that. 

Now, please note that I was not googling "lithium-ion fires" but simply "lithium-ion" and specified news articles. 

A reasonable person couldn’t be faulted for assuming that a search on that topic would bring up a stack of reports of revenue growth or perhaps some performance breakthroughs or news of new factories being built to satisfy the growing demand. 

The problem is, lately, as the world has come to accept lithium ion as ubiquitous and silently crucial as gasoline was for the last century, society is going to start examining the drawbacks and asking the inevitable question: What’s next? 

Lithium-ion batteries have a habit of catching fire and exploding due to a runaway exothermic reaction that takes place once enough individual lithium-ion cells within a battery begin to fail. 

While fires themselves are a rarity, you see the beginnings of this potential catastrophe taking place every time you charge an older smartphone, tablet, or laptop as its internal battery becomes hot to the touch. 

You're Probably Safe

Most people replace their batteries or the entire device in question before any of that becomes a real risk. However, that’s only the very tip of the iceberg when it comes to the imperfections of today’s most popular method of portable and distributed energy storage.

Lithium-ion batteries are slow to charge — just slow enough, in fact, that charge delay stands as the single biggest obstacle to adoption for prospective first-time electric vehicle buyers. 

It may not seem like much, but that 1,000% increase in time spent at the charging station versus a gasoline pump is an enormous psychological hurdle. 

Once they’re charged, these batteries don’t take you that far, and after 200–300 charge-discharge cycles — or about 90,000 miles driven — that range will begin to drop off. It's a constant reminder that a $10,000–$20,000 repair bill is looming somewhere in the offing, right along with the fire risk inherent to an aging lithium-ion battery pack. 

And yet the lithium-ion battery sector is expected to exceed a quarter-trillion dollars per year globally by the end of the decade — up from just $40 billion in 2021. 

That’s what we’re looking at here — a huge explosion of demand growth for a product that’s becoming as known for starting fires as it is for delivering a flow of electrons. 

The writing is on the wall, ladies and gentlemen.

The climate is ripe for a change, and it may have already arrived. 

Lithium-Ion 2.0 Is Here

A Canadian company operating out of a Vancouver suburb has invented a new kind of lithium cathode — and it has the potential to render every lithium-ion battery out there today obsolete overnight. 

The difference is in the engineering of the cathode itself, which is done to an unprecedented degree of precision — on a molecular level. 

The resulting batteries are better in every performance metric, from charge time to charge capacity to life span. 

They’re more reliable and far safer as well, but perhaps the biggest surprise of all is the cost. 

Because of a revolutionary production process, these superior batteries require less energy to manufacture and are actually cheaper to build than today’s benchmarks. 

They’re so much better that the entire balance of power in the lithium-ion game might be shifted in the coming years, and this is absolutely a huge deal in geopolitical terms. 

You see, lithium, among a few other industrial elements such as rare earths, is one of the most important strategic investments made by the Chinese government in the last half-century. 

As early as 1987, then-Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping proclaimed that these elements would do for China what oil did for the Saudis.

His prophecy didn't go ignored.

Since the 1990s, the Chinese Communist Party has quietly been building a lithium-ion monopoly in full anticipation of a coming Western addiction to wireless digital technology. 

Projected Near 20% Growth for the Rest of the Decade

Xiaoping's prediction, in case it needs reminding, came true. Today, there are almost 7 billion cellular devices in operation around the world — about 0.85 for every man, woman, and child. 

In five years, that number will double, and the Chinese are fully expecting to exploit that tidal wave of demand.  

Unfortunately for them, the Canadian company that’s developing the world’s most advanced lithium-ion batteries has no loyalty or obligations to the CCP, which means those plans are now in question. 

There’s a lot more to this story, with a lot of facts, figures, and explanations as to why these batteries are so different and why they’re going to be so important to the future of the lithium-ion market. 

This company is public and trading on two North American exchanges, but it’s still largely flying under the radar. Why haven’t the institutional investors blown up the stock yet?

To answer all those questions, I’m currently working on a detailed informational video on the topic and should have that ready for you in the coming weeks. 

Given how fast things change in the market, however, I decided to publish the written version of that video right here, right now, so you don’t miss another day of trading. 

Enter here for an exclusive look.

Fortune favors the bold,

Alex Koyfman

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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.