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Dirty Secrets of Electric Vehicles

Tilak Doshi
Singapore
2020
forbes.com Forbes

There are 7.2 million battery EVs or about 1% of the total vehicle fleet today. To get an idea of the scale of mining for raw materials involved in replacing the world’s gasoline and diesel-fueled cars with EVs, we can take the example of the UK as provided by Michael Kelly, the Emeritus Prince Philip Professor of Technology at the University of Cambridge. According to Professor Kelly, if we replace all of the UK vehicle fleet with EVs, assuming they use the most resource-frugal next-generation batteries, we would need the following materials: about twice the annual global production of cobalt; three quarters of the world’s production lithium carbonate; nearly the entire world production of neodymium; and more than half the world’s production of copper in 2018.

This is just for the UK. Professor Kelly estimates that if we want the whole world to be transported by electric vehicles, the vast increases in the supply of the raw materials listed above would go far beyond known reserves. The environmental and social impact of vastly-expanded mining for these materials — some of which are highly toxic when mined, transported and processed – in countries afflicted by corruption and poor human rights records can only be imagined. The clean and green image of EVs stands in stark contrast to the realities of manufacturing batteries.

There are several kinds of people who vote for politicians who demand the world switch to electric vehicles: a) those who think that electric vehicles are better for the environment than internal combustion cars, b) those who simply like electric vehicles and can afford them at prices supported by government subsidies and c) those who like politicians who demand a switch to electric vehicles for other political reasons.

For many engineers, there is no reason to vote for politicians who demand a switch to electric vehicles and God forbid an electric military (army, navy, and air force) John Shanahan, civil engineer.