Batteries for new cars will require a lot of new mining. Politicians love to tout incentives for electric vehicles as a great climate initiative. Replacing gas- and diesel-powered vehicles, they say, will reduce emissions and help us meet our climate targets. It’s a very simple vision of sustainability, but it won’t actually deliver the benefits they promise.
The idea that everything about our societies can essentially stay the same as long as we replace the engines in our two-ton automobiles that transport, at most, a few hundreds pounds of human is, quite frankly, ridiculous. Automobiles do not exist in a vacuum; their very existence requires a particular pattern of development where people are spread out and live far away from work, shopping, and their social network. It’s a very unsustainable way of living, and it’s one that needs to be changed if we’re to really meet our goals — but that’s not all.
There are other elements of the electric vehicle craze that politicians are happy to ignore because it would disrupt their oversimplified narrative:
Consideration of mineral requirements leads to the conclusion that it is likely impractical to power very many of the world’s vehicles by batteries using present technologies. But there are many other battery technologies and eventually others must become more practical if given sufficient R&D. Currently lithium is the only game in town in part because it has benefited from so very much more R&D than alternatives. But who can say when good alternatives will come into existence. We likely need the problem first before we try and solve it.
Copper for electric motors and connecting wires will also become a serious limitation. You need a lot of copper in an electric car as things stand. The quantities of copper required soon become unbelievable. This another area where major tech progress is needed, and there has been hardly any research since it hasn’t been an issue yet.
Minerals for batteries are dug out of the ground once, used in a car for 10-15 years, then re-used for domestic battery back up giving them a 25 year life. They are then recycled.
Oil and gas are just as damaging in extractions, with worse exploitation and are burnt away in an instant causing terrible pollution.
I bet oil runs out before minerals for batteries!!