Possible Resource Restrictions for the Future Large-Scale Production of Electric Cars

Eckard Helmers ()
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Eckard Helmers: University of Applied Sciences Trier, Environmental Campus Birkenfeld

Chapter Chapter 9 in Competition and Conflicts on Resource Use, 2015, pp 121-131 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This contribution reveals that the supply of critical raw materials is not primarily a problem of future electric car manufacturing, rather a general strategic problem for the (high) technology sector in some industrialized countries. Although a temporary supply bottleneck for raw materials cannot be excluded when the mass production of electric cars starts within the next decade, in the long-term fundamental supply risks are unlikely. In the medium-term, there is no alternative to Lithium as electrochemically active component in batteries for high performance electric cars; however, there are chemical alternatives in the long-term. The demand for Lithium calculated for the future beyond 2030 thus is highly uncertain. Higher prices for Lithium salts are expected, but raw materials represent only a small share of Lithium-ion battery production costs. Additionally, the size of an average Lithium-ion battery was overestimated in recent leading future scenarios. The current slightly critical supply situation for rare earth elements is expected to change in the medium-term since new production sites will be opened and electric motors free of rare earth elements are already available or are currently being developed.

Keywords: Electric Vehicle; Electric Motor; Rare Earth Element; Supply Risk; Conservative Scenario (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:nrmchp:978-3-319-10954-1_9

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-10954-1_9

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