Shortage Of Battery Material May Put The Brakes On The Charge Of EVs
Electric vehicles around the globe currently constitute just 05% of the total vehicles being run. But as the number is set to grow following the announcement of many automobile makers to go completely electric by 2025 there will be a future dearth of raw materials. The lithium-ion batteries used in most of the EVs today as well as all the major consumer tech devices require lithium cobalt and nickel.
Electric vehicles around the globe currently constitute just 0.5% of the total vehicles being run. But as the number is set to grow, following the announcement of many automobile makers to go completely electric by 2025, there will be a future dearth of raw materials to make these EVs. Why? Because of the batteries these EVs run on.
The lithium-ion batteries used in most of the EVs today (as well as all the major consumer tech devices) require lithium, cobalt, and nickel as the main elements for their production. A recent report by Wood Mackenzie, an energy consulting and research firm, states that the world might soon run out of these raw materials.
The boom in the production of electric vehicles in the next couple of decades will raise the demand for these raw materials that the supply will not be able to keep up with the pace, notes the report by Montgomery.
In fact, Montgomery is not the only one to predict such a future for the EV industry. In early July, chief executive officer of CleanTeQ - a metals company, Sam Riggall told Bloomberg that both North America and Europe realise the impending issue that needs to be addressed around the raw materials.
Cobalt conundrum
Among the three elements mentioned above, Cobalt is expected to turn out as the most limited one. The mineral has seen its price doubling to date since the end of 2016. If this rise in demand continues, even at a minimal rate (considering advancements in battery technology), this will lead to a shortage of supply of the metal by as early as 2025, as per a recent projection by the Joint Research Centre.
Raw ore from a copper-cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Image: Reuters)
Also read: Indian Car Makers Want Govt. To Promote Alternate Fuel And CNG Along With Electric Vehicles
As of now, more than 60 percent of world¡¯s Cobalt reserves are in the Democratic Republic of Congo. China has been hugely proactive in procuring these reserves and now enjoys being the largest manufacturer and user of EVs and lithium-ion batteries alike.
The larger thing to be understood here is that the limited minerals to be used in a rapidly growing commodity will, at some point, run out. Alternatives for this are being worked upon simultaneously. Several other form of batteries - like solid state batteries are being looked at as a solution to the issue with lithium-ion ones. As and when the other battery-formats become as potent, we might be seeing at several battery technologies coming to the rescue of such limited raw materials.
