This shit could be so big. And if China gets the jump on US on new energy storage tech, the economic race over the next decade might not even be close.
He’s covered it before, I believe. I don’t think it’s glossing over it so much as an expectation that his audience is well aware by now how fucked our current dependence on lithium and rare-earth minerals is.
I can’t recall exact figures, but I believe that lithium wasn’t even the main bottleneck – cobalt was. It’s why anyone who was aware of global mineral resources knew years ago that this whole electric vehicle / renewable energy paradigm was pretty much wishful thinking without a new battery tech emerging sometime soon. Everyone kinda just crossed their fingers and hoped it would work out.