Electric cars require far fewer raw materials than cars that run on fossil fuels. This is evident from an analysis by Transport & Environment.
It has always been the pet peeve of opponents of electric cars: the large amount of raw materials required for the battery of an electric car. Indeed, quite a few raw materials are needed for that. But almost all of them can be reused. Ultimately, after recycling an EV battery, only about 30 kilos of raw materials remain that cannot be reused.
That seems like a lot, but not when you compare it to the 17,000 liters of petrol that an average car consumes during its lifetime. According to a new study by the European Think Tank for Cleaner Transport, Europe's current dependence on crude oil far exceeds its need for raw materials for batteries. The gap will widen due to technological progress. Because as a result, the amount of lithium needed to make an EV battery will halve in the next decade. In fact, the amount of cobalt needed will decrease by more than three-quarters and that of nickel by about one-fifth, according to T&E.
MORE AND MORE MATERIALS COME FROM RECYCLING
By 2035, more than one-fifth of the lithium and 65% of the cobalt needed to make a new battery will come from recycling, the study found. According to T&E, the recycling rates required by a new European Commission bill will significantly reduce demand for new materials for EVs. That is not exactly the case with conventional cars.
The study also shows that Europe will probably produce enough batteries this year to supply its own EV market. 22 battery gigafactories are already planned for the next decade. The total production capacity of this will increase to 460 GWh in 2025, and in 2030 to 700 GWh (2030). With this, batteries can be made for about 8 million electric cars, enough for the European EV industry.
NO LONGER DEPENDENT ON SUPPLY OF CRUDE OIL
Lucien Mathieu added: “This is very different from the current situation. Europe is almost entirely dependent on crude oil imports for its fleet. More efficient batteries and recycling will make the EU much less dependent on raw material imports than on oil.”
LESS CO2
Lucien Mathieu, transport and e-mobility analyst at T&E, says: “When it comes to raw materials, there is simply no comparison. During its lifetime, an average car running on fossil fuels burns the equivalent of a 25-story stack of oil barrels. When battery materials are recycled, only about 30 kilograms of metal is lost. That's roughly the size of a football."
The 'life cycle analysis' of Transport & Environment also shows that electric cars always produce less CO2 during their lifespan than cars with a combustion engine. Even in Poland, which has the least clean electricity supply in the EU, electric cars emit 22 percent less CO2 than petrol cars. EVs also consume 58 percent less energy than a petrol car over their lifetime, according to T&E.
Source: e-drivers.com , transportenvironment.org , ad.nl