The German electric vehicle manufacturer Next.e.GO Mobile has agreed on a cooperation with the raw materials trader Trafigura. Under the agreement, Trafigura will supply 100 per cent of e.Go’s future aluminium needs, as well as battery raw materials such as lithium, cobalt and copper.
The agreement between the two companies is still a non-binding letter of intent, but the plan provides for a five-year supply contract that is expected to start in January 2024 and end in January 2029. The MoU also includes provisions for a supply credit facility.
Trafigura is an international commodity company based in Singapore. The raw materials trader signed a deal with lithium processing company Green Lithium in the UK in May last year.
In October last year, Next e.GO Mobile launched the e.wave X, the successor to the Life small electric car unveiled in May. The German company is also planning a plant in Bulgaria similar to the project in North Macedonia: From 2024, up to 30,000 vehicles per year will be built. The company is enabling battery swapping for its vehicles but does not yet appear to have the kind of micromobility cooperation agreements that would see this evolve in widespread swapping stations with other manufacturers, like Gogoro in Taiwan and elsewhere in South and Southeast Asia.
e.GO Mobile says the current agreement means that Trafigura will supply one hundred per cent of its requirements for transition and battery metals. The German company also says that its agreement with Trafigura details the approach that will be taken for measuring carbon intensity for each source of metals across the supply chain.
Keyword: Trafigura to supply Next.e.GO Mobile with battery raw materials