HOW ECO-FRIENDLY ARE ELECTRIC VEHICLES? - Aakash Batra

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When the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2019 was given to 3 scientists who were responsible for the development of rechargeable batteries, consequently, the Li-Ion battery which is rechargeable in nature was being labeled as our savior from the harm done by fossil fuels. But as the adage goes the grass is always greener on the other side, so is the case with Li-ion batteries. 

While EVs on the road combats carbon emissions, their production is carbon-intensive. Research by Berylls Strategy Advisors found that making an electric car that has a battery weighing 500 kg emits 74% more CO2 than a conventional car i
n Germany. Another research done by the Fraunhofer Institute of Germany found that an EV with a 40 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery bought in Germany in 2019 must cover 52,000km before its lifetime emissions go below its fossil fuel peers. For luxury EVs with batteries in the range of 120 kWh, the distance to be covered increases to 230,000km. Another source of emission is, if the country that is manufacturing & driving the EVs generates its electricity from fossil fuel sources then the carbon footprint will be even more. Leaders in EV manufacturing are China, Thailand, Germany & Poland which have a very small pool of its energy getting generated from non-renewable sources further aiding in EV-related carbon emissions. So, I would like to stress on the fact that if we wish to go all-in for EV, one of the requirements is to generate a huge amount of our electricity using renewable sources of energy.

Let's move towards the social implications & possible impediments to the supply chain of Li-ion batteries. One of the most important components of a Li-ion battery is Cobalt. 70% of the world's Cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The 2nd best reserve country has just 5%. Cobalt mining is responsible for not only contaminating potable water bodies of Central America but also for child labor in DRC. Pollution caused by it has also led to many birth-related defects in the local population. On the supply side, Australia is the leader in the production of Lithium with 62%, but more than 50% of the world's Lithium is in China. China dominates the production of components for li-ion batteries, producing 61% of cathode materials for EVs and 83% of anodes in 2019, and is the undisputed leader of cell manufacturing, with a 73% market share. This overdependence on a few countries can prove disastrous in the long run as seen in the case of semi-conductor shortages caused by the Covid pandemic. It also gives leverage to these countries over others. This, as realized by the US and others, has forced them to do research in trying to come up with ways to manufacture these batteries using other components. There have been some leaps but it's still a long way to go. 

Now is the time to talk about the recyclability of these batteries. If we can recycle most of the batteries that we put in the market then we would need less production of new batteries. While this is true, the issue with this argument is that half of the EV batteries are going to reach their end of life after 15 years. This implies a boon for the recycling market but not just yet. Meanwhile, the world will continue manufacturing new batteries to satiate the demand. It will also have to be seen the amount of effort that we require to recycle batteries are worth it or not because Lithium is very toxic & highly reactive and thus makes the whole process complicated. According to a report by SOMO, only 5% of today's EV batteries are recycled globally. To overcome this, the world needs more initiatives like the EU has taken. It mandates its companies to collect 45% of the batteries to either repurpose or recycle but today only a few of these are Li-ion batteries because they are difficult to dismantle from the devices they power and we need a solution for this at the earliest. EU aims to change the mandate to collect 70% of its batteries by 2030. 

If we are able to implement the recyclability & reusability to our best potential, Li-ion batteries might actually be a boon for humankind in the future. It also remains to be seen, due to our over-dependence on a few countries, how will we avoid a supply chain crisis, in case any untoward incident or a Covid-like event happens in the near future. Solid-state batteries definitely promise to reduce our dependency on Cobalt & Nickel. It would also be very exciting to see if Lithium can actually be replaced by Aluminium as claimed in research by the Chalmers University of Technology.


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