Tesla Vs. BYD: Tesla Rebounds As Robotaxi Launch Looms; BYD Fights For Support
Tesla vs. BYD is barely a race in EV sales. Tesla stock has bounced with Elon Musk setting a robotaxi launch date. BYD is fighting to hold key support.
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Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Investing in metals: Will silver surpass its 2011 all-time high?
A growing chorus of influential market voices believes it's not a matter of if, but when silver will hit its all-time high of $50 (€44) an ounce — a level not seen since April 2011. The precious metal surged to nearly $37 (€32) this week, a new 13-year high, securing a remarkable 10% gain in the first 10 days of June alone, in a rally that has caught global investor attention. The $50 threshold is now increasingly seen as a logical target, with both technical and macroeconomic conditions aligning in silver's favour. Could this be just the beginning of silver's strongest bull run in over a decade? The case for silver's resurgence is being championed by several market analysts and institutional voices on Wall Street, who have argued that a combination of structural and cyclical factors is propelling the metal's rally momentum. Otavio Costa, macro strategist at Crescat Capital, recently pointed out that silver has historically followed gold's performance. 'We are likely in the early stages of a new secular bull market for the metal,' Costa recently wrote in a post on social media X, noting that silver typically lags gold in the early stages of a precious metals rally before outperforming later on. The gold-to-silver ratio — an indicator of how many ounces of silver are required to buy one ounce of gold — has fallen sharply, breaking from historically elevated levels near 100. 'This move is likely just the beginning,' Costa observed, as investment starts flowing from gold into silver, and eventually into early-stage mining equities. 'A test of the all-time highs near $50 is within scope as positioning and momentum are not yet stretched,' said Bank of America's technical analyst Paul Ciana in a recent note. Rashad Hajiyev, macro investor and commentator, suggested that silver's June breakout could conservatively point to $60 (€52). "2010 and 2020 breakouts resulted in 150% and 60% gains, respectively, over eight months and one month," he wrote. "With gold prices headed towards $3,600 and the average gold-to-silver ratio at 60, $60 silver is a legitimate target.' Investor interest in silver's monetary role has resurged in recent months, driven by growing concerns over the US administration's ability to manage the escalating federal debt. Confidence in traditional US safe-haven assets has weakened, with both US Treasury bonds and the dollar losing ground in 2025 — an atypical development during a period of global economic uncertainty, when these instruments would typically attract demand. Gold has been the first mover to reflect mounting concerns over US fiscal sustainability, gaining more than 25% year-to-date and outperforming all major asset classes in 2025. Silver may be next to follow, attracting investors seeking hard assets that cannot be debased by an expanding supply of money. What's different this time is the acceleration in industrial demand for silver, especially from the clean energy sector. Related Gold's record rally stalls on hopes of easing global trade tensions Is Trump destroying the dollar - and what does it mean for the euro? As the Silver Institute highlighted, silver is one of the world's best electrical conductors, making it indispensable in the production of solar panels, electric vehicles (EVs), and microelectronics. Notably, the solar sector's demand for silver has soared, doubling from 12% of total demand in 2022 to 25% in 2024. Sprott projects that by 2030, annual silver demand for solar applications could rise to 370 million ounces, up from 220 million today. According to Katusa Research, the current market environment exhibits all three of what it calls 'Buffett's critical silver signals': a deepening supply deficit, stagnant production, and plummeting above-ground stockpiles. These indicators, they argue, historically precede explosive silver rallies. A reversal of the economic and geopolitical anxieties that gripped markets in 2025 could dampen silver's appeal as a monetary hedge. Should the Trump administration signal credible efforts to rein in its ballooning budget deficit, the sell-off in Treasuries might stabilise — or even reverse — restoring investor confidence in the dollar and reducing the urgency to seek alternatives like gold or silver. Still, structural demand for silver, particularly from the electric vehicle and solar industries, is likely to persist. This could provide a foundation for continued price support, albeit at a more moderate pace than if US economic dominance remained under heightened scrutiny. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Soft metal solid-state battery mimics biology, could drive EVs 500 miles per charge
Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a new metal combination that could transform the future of solid-state batteries. By blending lithium with a soft, surprising element, sodium, the team has found a way to reduce the pressure needed for these batteries to operate significantly. This innovation could lead to lighter, longer-lasting power sources for everything from smartphones to electric vehicles. The findings were published by the lab of Matthew McDowell, a professor in Georgia Tech's School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering. His group has also filed for a patent on the breakthrough. Solid-state batteries promise greater energy density and better safety than lithium-ion ones. They use a solid electrolyte instead of a flammable liquid, making them more stable. However, they often require high pressure to work. The metal plates needed to apply that pressure are often heavier and bulkier than the battery itself. 'A solid-state battery usually requires metal plates to apply this high pressure, and those plates can be bigger than the battery itself,' McDowell said. 'This makes the battery too heavy and bulky to be effective.' That challenge has kept solid-state batteries from reaching widespread use, despite years of research and hype. The team, led by Georgia Tech research scientist Sun Geun Yoon, found that adding sodium to lithium changes the game. Sodium is not active in the battery's electrochemical process, but its softness plays a key role. 'Adding sodium metal is the breakthrough,' McDowell said. 'It seems counterintuitive because sodium is not active in the battery system, but it's very soft, which helps improve the performance of the lithium.' Sodium's softness is no exaggeration. In a controlled setting, someone could press a gloved finger into the metal and leave a mark. When paired with lithium, it deforms easily under lower pressure, keeping better contact with the solid electrolyte. This improves overall battery performance. To understand why sodium-lithium batteries perform better, the team turned to biology. Specifically, they used the concept of morphogenesis — the way biological structures evolve based on local conditions. Morphogenesis is rare in materials science. But in this case, the interaction between sodium and lithium followed this pattern. The researchers saw that sodium behaved like a deformable phase, adjusting to structural changes during battery use. McDowell's team developed this concept under a project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), alongside other universities. The implications of this research are broad. It could lead to phone batteries that last far longer or electric vehicles capable of going 500 miles on a single charge. The ability to reduce the pressure requirement without sacrificing energy capacity opens new possibilities for scaling solid-state batteries. While challenges remain before commercialization, McDowell's group continues to test new materials. Their goal is to make solid-state batteries more competitive with the lithium-ion standard. If successful, this shift could mark a major leap in battery technology. The study is published in the journal Science.
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
World's first all open-door large-scale fire test of 5MWh battery system completed
A Chinese energy storage technology firm has completed the world's first all-open-door large-scale fire test of its ∞Block 5MWh battery energy storage system (BESS). The test conducted on Hithium energy storage device offers a high-stakes technical model to inform future product safety standards and set a validation benchmark in this revealed that as thermal runaway and other safety incidents in BESS draw increasing concern, more rigorous and standardized safety testing is urgently needed. The open-door fire test was developed to meet this requirement—featuring four ultimate test challenges that are all open-door combustion, dual 15cm extreme spacing, fire suppression system deactivated, and 100% State of Charge (SOC).The test strictly adhered to UL 9540A, NFPA 855 safety standards and was conducted by UL Solutions, a globally recognized safety certification authority, and witnessed by certified U.S. fire protection engineers and customers. The system structure remained intact, with no fire propagation to any of the three adjacent containers despite undergoing 15 hours of full combustion. This result validates Hithium's multi-layered passive safety architecture and thermal isolation capabilities, even under the most extreme conditions, according to a press revealed that during all open-door combustion, the container doors remained fully open throughout the test, creating an unrestrained combustion environment with intensified oxygen flow—far more severe than traditional closed-door the dual 15cm extreme spacing test, the BESS were placed side by side and back to back with just 15cm spacing. Despite flames over 1300°C, no thermal propagation occurred, proving effective close-range isolation. In one of the tests, all fire suppression systems were deactivated. The system relied solely on passive fire protection to withstand prolonged intense fire, demonstrating autonomous fire resistance and BESS was tested at full capacity to maximize thermal energy release, validating the system's reliability and stability under the harshest conditions. Hithium stressed that the latest achievement highlights HiTHIUM's commitment to innovation and quality, providing valuable insights for future safety standards in the industry. "Moving forward, Hithium will continue to advance safety performance through technology leadership and global collaboration, driving the industry toward a safer and more reliable future," said the company in a statement. Industry experts hailed the trial as a 'qualitative leap' in energy storage fire safety testing, significantly increasing difficulty across fire dynamics, spatial constraints, charge state, and response conditions. The results not only enhance the credibility of safety claims but offer a replicable framework for establishing more practical, real-world safety benchmarks, reported PV Magazine. Hithium ranked 4th globally in energy storage battery shipments in 2024, delivering 35.1 GWh, according to Infolink's latest market data.
