Lee Hart has commented several times about the way engineers tend to play follow-the-leader. Thus it is that we have, in effect, entirely laid all our road EV eggs in the lithium basket.
I can see the possibility that once we reach a point where a significant percentage of vehicles on the road are powered by lithium batteries, the need for litium mining will decline as old batteries are recycled. But unless we find or develop a battery type that uses more common, more plentiful materials, reaching that point means mining one heck of a LOT of lithium. I was reminded of this by a piece in the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/dec/08/the-curse-of-white-oil-electric- vehicles-dirty-secret-lithium https://v.gd/NRrCfO The title notwithstanding, it's NOT a hit piece on EVs, it just points out that to achieve the EU's goals will require mining a fair bit of lithium. And it turns out that lithium mining hits closer to home than I realized. Maybe I've confused it with the materials that go into motors, but I sort of had the impression that lithium mostly came from third world dictatorships. Not that that's GOOD, mind you. Those places aren't known for being concerned with either the environment or the poor folks doing the mining work. But look at who supplies the literal majority of the lithium. It's Australia that provides 55%. I had no idea. The other surprise is that Portugal has large lithium deposits. It sounds like the Portugese, who the article say are generally somewhat less "green" than other western EU folk, may be facing something not too far removed from the horrendous and destructive mountaintop removal mining carried out in West Virginia here in the US. That's not a good look for EVs, and it gives more ammunition to the anti-EV forces. In saying that I don't mean to minimize the very real environmental degradation that can come from mining. And of course one difference is that the lithium is mined and then used for years in an EV, as opposed to petroleum being pumped continuously to keep feeding the ICEV hordes. What, if anything, is on the horizon that might lessen EVs' dependence on lithium? David Roden, EVDL moderator & general lackey To reach me, don't reply to this message; I won't get it. Use my offlist address here : http://evdl.org/help/index.html#supt = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = There'll be one corporation, selling one little box. It'll do what you want, and tell you what you want, And cost whatever you've got. -- Greg Brown, "Where is Maria," 1996 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
