• Lithium is one of the key components in electric vehicle (EV) batteries, but global supplies are under strain because of rising EV demand.
• The world could face lithium shortages by 2025, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says, while Credit Suisse thinks demand could treble between 2020 and 2025, meaning “supply would be stretched”.
• About 2 billion EVs need to be on the road by 2050 for the world to hit net zero, the IEA says, but sales stood at just 6.6 million last year, and some carmakers are already selling out of EVs.
• Lithium supply faces challenges not only from surging demand, but because resources are concentrated in a few places and over half of today’s production is in areas with high water stress.
• Future developments with batteries or manufacturing methods could eventually alleviate some lithium shortages.

The world needs 2 billion electric vehicles to get to net zero. But is there enough lithium to make all the batteries?