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Russia Building World's Largest Li-Ion Battery Plant
MikeChino writes "Russia and China are gearing up to dominate the lithium-ion battery industry by launching the world's largest Li-ion plant (press release). Planned for Novobirsk, Russia, the facility will be a joint venture between Chinese firm Thunder Sky and RUSNANO (a Russian state-run corporation) and it will be able to produce up to 500,000 batteries (of all sizes) per year."
will never feel bad about working there.
help me i've cloned myself and can't remember which one I am
This might just kick the electric car into mainstream mass production, as the cost of reasonable battery technology falls below production costs with illegal subsidies.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
In Communist China, battery is fully charged. Please ignore actual reading on dial.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Probably large enough to power a car but not large enough to threaten your deluded sense of manliness.
500,000 batteries per year is considered that large? When Apple is selling close to 20,000,000 iPads/year? And iPhones, and all the PC manufacturers laptops/netbooks, and all the Android phones, and all the other phones? What do they all do, buy batteries from dozens of different manufacturers for each of their popular products? Really?
China and Russia? Those two are among the major producers of lithium.
And the two counties with the lowest product standards and safety laws.
I don't know, but it works for me.
Contrary to many scare reports, lithium is not particularly rare or expensive -- under $10 a kilogram for lithium carbonate, which is used to make a dozen or two percent of the mass of batteries that sell for hundreds of dollars per kilogram. It's a couple percent of the cost. The main risk for lithium is temporary supply shortages, where demand outgrows production rates (it takes many years to get a new mine started). And of course, everyone wants to produce the cheapest stuff, but the cheapest stuff isn't always in the best of locations (producing from seawater -- a basically boundless supply -- costs ~$30 or so per kilogram of carbonate, versus a couple dollars per kilogram from a good lithium-rich playa.
It's not batteries that will be displaced by elevated lithium prices, but the other uses, which currently make up the vast majority of lithium consumption -- alloys, greases, glass, ceramics, etc.
Future headline #86: "GM to Recall Three Remaining Cars"
Not even close. The problem in both is failure in making companies follow the laws that are in place, not making laws. At least a third of countries in the world has worse product standards and safety laws then China and Russia.
Jesus Christ, it's a Li-Ion! Get in the Ca-ar!
the chemistry cat
wants his puns back
before they argon
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
Perhaps the poster should have read the article. The 500,000 figure comes from the number of buses they expect to be able to equip with batteries each year. It seems while we can't even read, the Chinese and the Russians are moving ahead to OWN the battery market for vehicles.
There are numerous other countries with shittier conditions than China and Russia. The latter one is generally quite good, actually. China too, especially compared to the truly cheap countries.
Yes yes, Russian products still use trusty vacuum tube! Not like in west. Our mono stereo sys-tems truly go to eleven, perhaps even twelve if you run outside in winter times or heating not working.
Please cease the cheer leading for China. They deal with any country in the world that can provide them with cheap resources. They are extreme pragmatists (which is not totally bad) and don't give a shit about anything as long as they get what they want. Environmental protection, rouge regimes of all kinds, and worker safety do not enter into the way they conduct business. If the US operated in the same manner they would be criticized even more than they are already. And it has been predicted that China is going to surpass the US economy and that China is taking US manufacturing jobs but the US still has the highest GDP and is still the number one manufacturer in world with 1/3 of the population China. China has started posting trade deficits after years of surpluses. Some of their rising trade deficits are due to their increased food imports from the US by a factor of 6 over the past 5 years. Currency manipulation is their economic weapon of choice to make sure thier exports are cheap. However, they have pushed the currency manipulation as far as possible and the cost of their exports are rising which is creating opportunities for others to compete. This has also led to a high level of inflation in the country which will also contribute raise the costs of their exports because the workers will require higher salaries to compensate for the inflation. If the Chinese government can not control this trend they would be in danger of destabilizing the country. The only thing they offer to the international market is low prices. Quality and innovation are absent in their economic system. And if push ever came to shove the US could increase import tariffs and impose import quotas because China does not supply anything the US can not produce domestically or obtain from someone else. Contrary to popular belief China is also not loaning the US money. They are making investments that they consider low risk. They only account for approximately 6% of the outstanding US bonds and securities so they hardly own the country.
Actually Ladas are quite high quality make, some important parts from ladas are used in rally.
They are known to be quite reliable too (the old RWD ones), up to a certain point. They can't take as much wear in general, but until they are worn out they are damn reliable ones.
The better models have intriguing accessories too, one would not expect to see in many cars, sport version a friend owned had voltage, rpm, oil press, oil temp gauges, surprisingly fuel injected for such an old car, and other neat little things.
Also the lesser models were tuned for the russian cheap gasoline, for our usage you could easily tune it up to produce quite a bit more within an single night, changing the tune up for the higher quality fuel we got.
Parts are tremendously cheap too.
They are meant to be cheap commodity cars, and for that purpose i think they did quite well. The newer ladas tho ... They all seem to suck and have shoddy quality.
Disclaimer: I've never owned a lada, i've only driven a lada once (and i hated it, was some reaaally old model with funky steering wheel angle), and will not own one. I'm simply a fan of classic, simple, RWD cars.
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