The age of the electric vehicle (EV) will be here sooner than you think.

Out of 1 billion cars in the world, only 2 million are electric. But that will soon change, as costs diminish, and more governments encourage the adoption of EVs to cut carbon emissions and fight urban pollution.

According to Bloomberg, by 2040, 54 percent of all new car sales will be for EVs. Millions of new EVs will take a big bite out of oil demand and displace 8 million barrels of transport fuel (gasoline and diesel) every day.

But the biggest factor in the EV surge is what’s under the hood…lithium-ion batteries.

Bloomberg estimates that in the late 2020s, cheap battery technology will allow EV production to skyrocket.

The key is lithium, “white petroleum,” which is quickly becoming the world’s most sought-after mineral.

Jonathan More of lithium miner Power Metals Corp. calls it the largest commodity boom “in a generation.” The world is going to need “mountains of lithium, from all over the world, to satisfy the global hunger for batteries.”

A lot of those lithium batteries will be needed for EVs: in fact, major oil companies like Total SA have estimated that 20 million EVs will be on the road by 2030, and they’ll need enough batteries to power 200 million cell phones. That’s 1.2 million tons, six times current production levels.

With future demand like that, it’s no wonder that miners like Power Metals are so bullish. With a 15,000m drilling program about to get underway on 3000 hectares, Power Metals is at the center of the Canadian lithium belt that could contain as much as 7.5 million tons of lithium.

Forget oil and gas; the future of energy belongs to lithium.

“Carpocalypse Now”

When EVs first started to roll off assembly lines, plenty of skeptics scoffed. EV sales were tiny and concentrated on the luxury car market.

But now that’s all changing.

In March 2018, more than 40,000 EVs were sold in Europe, a 41 percent increase from last year. Total sales for the year were up 37 percent from 2017. European auto-makers like Volvo want to concentrate on EVs and plan on electric cars and trucks covering 50 percent of all sales by 2025.

Porsche will be 50 percent EV by 2023. General Motors and Toyota want to sell 1 million EVs per year by 2025.