China is busy buying up Lithium resources around the world:
https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/china-mining-battery-companies-sweep-up-lithium-supplies-in-acquisition-blitz-67205411

Prices have roughly trebled from pre-pandemic levels. Hard to see battery costs falling anytime soon.

Interesting thread on EV owners experiences wrt range and charging:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=247&t=1958749&i=0

Global push to net zero will trigger fossil fuel crash and fastest adopters of renewables will win big, study finds

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/fossil-fuel-net-zero-transition-cop26-b1952012.html

So if I hang on and stay on fossil fuels for transport and heating my costs are going to drop.

So why change, just need to stock up on oil burners for the oil fired central heating and an old diesel Land Rover.

That is embarrassing!

It's like that electric bus that got stranded trying to get to the G7 meeting earlier this year.

I wonder what the air quality monitors will show for the time the circus is in town? My bet is that they will show a spike - or even a hockey-stick!

Thanks for the link.
I took a look at a site - "Glasgow kerbside" - for the past 30 days but it didn't show any sudden change. Obviously I need a "nature trick".

Thanks for the video link.
He's a bit irritating to watch but he does cover all of the issues and his comments explain how JCB got to where they are.

Lithium prices have rocketed lately and there's been speculation about the impact on EV costs, possible resource constraints, etc.. So an article on Euractiv caught my eye - it's about extracting lithium from underground reservoirs as a by-product of geothermal projects. There seems to be substantial potential:

"Vulcan Energy is in the process of building five geothermal power plants in the Upper Rhine Valley, above one of the world’s richest reserves of lithium in geothermal brine.
Together, these would represent the largest lithium reserves in Europe, at 15.85 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent, Kreuter said. The extracted raw lithium will then be sent to a nearby central refinery, where it will be converted to lithium hydroxide and be delivered to battery and automobile factories across Europe.
By 2025, Vulcan Energy plans to extract emission-free 40,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide from the Upper Rhine Valley – enough to supply batteries for the equivalent of about one million cars per year.
Once the plants are up and running, Vulcan Energy could support 100% of the battery industry in Germany – or 25% of the expected demand in Europe, Kreuter continued."

Here's the article:
https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/lithi...

Similar moves are underway at Cornish geothermal projects with aims to start producing Lithium by the end of next year.

tomo, I posted the same on the CliScep site and got this reply from Alan K, who used to frequent these parts:
I know just a little about sources of lithium. Some granites and, especially late stage very coarsely crystalline granitic pegmatites are associated with concentrated volatiles and light elements like lithium. I suppose that some lithium dissolves in hot hydrothermal waters where they are associated with granites and pegmatites and can be extracted from those brines. However the resource with be relatively small compared with those in other brines, especially those concentrated by evaporation in salt lakes and salars (or which sank down into underlying rocks after being concentrated – as in Southern California).
I would agree that taxpayers' hard-earned is probably involved.

"Who washes a car in -6°C weather"

Anyone who so desires or possibly anyone living in a place where -6 degs is fair weather.