Lithium is having a moment.Right now, there is a lot of excitement over the silvery-white metal. Wall Street analysts have even dubbed it, “white petroleum,” or “the next gasoline”.Yet, the lithium market is still quite small, worth only about $1 billion, annually.It is only a matter of time, however, before the market begins to grow exponentially in the years ahead – largely thanks to growth in electric vehicles, and the lithium-ion batteries that power them. The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) estimates every battery in the Model S from Tesla Motors (TSLA) will use 63 kilograms of lithium carbonate.Don’t overlook the fact that lithium is a crucial component in our smartphones and other electronic devices as well. While lithium is used in these in much smaller increments, this just goes to show how integral the metal is, to our daily lives.

Source: How to Play Small Caps and the Lithium Boom — Trefis