Lithium race is on: Renault-Nissan Lands in China, Obama Buys Hybrid Cars. TNR.v, SQM, WLC.v, CLQ.v, F, GM, TTM, RIMM, GOOG, AAPL

Another angle on recent developments in Electric cars, all major news makers are in: China and Obama - will Lithium really take off to become White Gold? USA and China are starting this time again from very different positions, but China seems to have all advantages this time: 2 trillion reserves against 2 trillion budget deficit in USA and ability to leapfrog old technologies and Oil Old Boys Club in order to build new infrastructure needed for Electric Cars development on massive mass production scale. But do not discount US Corp totally here: race is going to be interesting - it is still for a while the largest economy in the world even in its down slope cycle, part of all those printed money will find its way into New Technology plays with Energy Security agenda pushed by Obama. Old and new rising powers will drive new Bull - CleanTech, Alternative Energy and Mobility convergence for the mass market introduction in the form of Electric Car with industry accepted Lithium based batteries as energy storage solution. We are interested as usual in High Leveraged plays in a new Bull which are early into the game and are in acceptable country risk/reward matrix: so far only a few Juniors are rushing into the Lithium play.

Ucilia Wang

Renault-Nissan Lands in China, Obama Buys Hybrid Cars April 10, 2009 at 12:39 PM

The Renault-Nissan Alliance said Friday it will help the Chinese government map out plans to popularize electric cars.
The automaker will create a detailed plan mapping out a battery-charging network and a marketing program. The alliance will do all these work for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Nissan said it also is working with the city of Wuhan on a pilot project to create the infrastructure for electric cars.
The alliance plans to start selling electric cars in China in early 2011.
The alliance has been aggressively wooing governments from around the world to build markets for all-electric cars. It has inked similar deals in Japan, Israel, Denmark, Portugual, Monaco, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Ireland and the United States.
Other carmakers and players in the auto industry also have been lobbying for government support to provide incentives for consumers to buy electric cars and to create policies that would smooth the process of setting up charging networks.
Earlier this week, Mitsubishi said it plans to work with Oregon and utility Portland General Electric on developing a charging station network. The utility is developing the network, and Mitsubishi said it’d provide the all-electric i MiEV for testing the network. The automaker hasn’t said when it will start selling the i MiEV in the United States. Mitsubishi plans to launch the car in Japan this summer.
The Portland utility and the state of Oregon have a similar deal with the Renault-Nissan Alliance.
While the state and local governments in the United States are looking ahead to promote low- or zero-emission cars, the federal government is focusing on helping the domestic automakers now.
President Obama announced yesterday that the government would buy 17,600 fuel-efficient cars from American automakers for its fleet. The administration plans to spend $285 million by June to buy those cars from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, reported Washington Post. That would include 2,500 hybrid cars.
The General Services Administration will make the purchase. It also plans to spend $15 billion to test advanced technology cars in the federal fleet, including buses that run on compressed natural gas and all-electric cars.