Electric cars and batteries: how will the world produce enough? (2024)

FAQs

Electric cars and batteries: how will the world produce enough? ›

While the world does have enough lithium to power the electric vehicle revolution, it's less a question of quantity, and more a question of accessibility. Earth has approximately 88 million tonnes of lithium, but only one-quarter is economically viable to mine as reserves.

While the world does have enough lithium to power the electric vehicle revolution, it's less a question of quantity, and more a question of accessibility. Earth has approximately 88 million tonnes of lithium, but only one-quarter is economically viable to mine as reserves.

While many experts say there are enough resources on earth for the EV industry, many of those have yet to be tapped into, especially in the US. Getting access to those materials (and being able to use them in electric cars) requires costly and time-consuming permitting, construction, extraction, and other processes.

The world has enough rare earth minerals and other critical raw materials to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy to produce electricity and limit global warming, according to a new study that counters concerns about the supply of such minerals.

Through their entire lifetime, electric cars are better for the climate. In the manufacturing process, electric vehicles will produce more global warming emissions than the average gasoline vehicle, because electric cars' large lithium-ion batteries require a lot of materials and energy to build.

An analysis by KPMG says the U.S. currently has enough generating capability to charge 80 million EVs during overnight hours—hence the need to control when cars are charged. The Edison Electric Institute estimates there could be 26 million EVs on the road by 2030, up from about 3.2 million today.

Once an electric car's battery has reached the end of its serviceable life – which will most likely be because the car itself has reached the end of the road – its battery pack can find a new purpose, being removed from the vehicle and reused in a number of different deployments.

As electric cars are much heavier than gas-guzzlers, they use more energy per person transported, which is environmentally wasteful. Battery metals mining and production are monopolized by China and/or suffer from horrible working conditions. It also harms the soil and causes air contamination.

Despite expecting 12.5 million electric cars by 2035, California officials insist that the grid can provide enough electricity. But that's based on multiple assumptions — including building solar and wind at almost five times the pace of the past decade — that may not be realistic.

Source of EV Batteries

Half of the world's cobalt originates from the Democratic Republic of Congo, while Indonesia, Australia, and Brazil make up the lion's share of global nickel reserves, and South America's 'Lithium Triangle' consisting of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina hold 75% of the world's lithium.

Can grid handle electric cars? ›

Can the power grid handle all the electric vehicles we buy in the next few years? Yes. The grid is well-equipped to supply energy to EVs at current adoption levels.

U.S. geological survey the world is getting better at mining battery metals including lithium. As of 2021, it was estimated that the world had 88 million tonnes of lithium resources.

Lithium mining does have an environmental impact, but it is no worse than oil drilling. This is especially true when you consider the carbon emissions produced from petroleum products during their usage, as compared to lithium-ion batteries that have little to no GHG emissions during their use.

Reviewed by Shannon Martin, Licensed Insurance Agent. It's great that you're doing more research into the industry, as an informed buyer is always going to be a better buyer. Currently, electric cars are made with lithium-ion batteries, the lithium for which is primarily mined from China, Bolivia, and Argentina.