Who’s powering our electric vehicles?

An email I received got me to ask myself questions about the components in an EV battery. As you read this remember all these minerals are mined in other countries by giant earth movers powered by gasoline or diesel engines and millions of tons of earth are needed to extract the minerals.

I started by going to sites that listed the components. Www.mining.com/web/the-keyminerals-in-an-ev-battery/ has a chart showing five different batteries of 60KWH Lithium-ion type used in cars. Five major components needed for a car battery are lithium, manganese, cobalt, nickel and graphite. The chart also lists aluminum, copper, steel and iron.

Another site, by the Union of Concerned Scientists, (www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/ files/2021-02/ev-battery-recycling-fact-sheet. pdf) published a paper on electric vehicle batteries, addressing questions about critical materials and recycling. It explained which countries produce the components of these batteries.

They listed major suppliers, including the U.S., in a chart as follows:

51% of the lithium comes from Chile, while only 4% comes from the U.S.

32% of the manganese comes from South Africa, 17% from Ukraine, 17% from Brazil, and 7% from the rest of the world, very little from the U.S.

51% of the cobalt comes from the Congo, while the U.S. only provides less than 1%.

24% of the nickel comes from Indonesia, 23% from Australia and 12% from Brazil. The U.S. only produces less than 1%.

And the last mineral, graphite, has 30% coming from Russia, 25% coming from China and 24% from Brazil. The U.S. appears not to produce enough to warrant 1%.

After reading many sites proclaiming China makes 80% of the car batteries sent to the U.S., I think one can deduce that China receives most of the raw materials listed above.

What happens if they decide not to make any more batteries for the U.S.?