Europe and US face diminishing lithium supply for electric vehicle batteries

BY HELEN ALBERT18 JUNE 2025

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Lithium supplies in Europe and the US will not meet demand for electric vehicle batteries by 2030, despite significant predicted increases in production over this time, new research suggests.

Source: © Xeni4ka/Getty Images

Demand for lithium is highest in China, Europe and the US. However, most lithium is extracted in countries outside these regions such as this mine in Argentine in sight of the Andes mountains

China is predicted to continue its control of the market with greater access to imported lithium and better refining capacity than other regions, as well as a large domestic electric battery industry.

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‘China is currently completely dominating,’ explains André Månberger, study co-author and senior lecturer at Lund University in Sweden. Because of this ‘it will become difficult for US and Europe to increase their imports drastically in a short period of time’, he says.

In 2015, the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals were published. Increasing use of electric vehicles can help achieve seven of these goals. However, lithium is critically important to electric vehicle production so ensuring an adequate supply is essential.

Although global lithium demand is primarily in China, the US and Europe, most natural lithium resources are not in these regions. Australia has the largest known lithium deposits, producing around 50% of the world’s supply. Although China announced it had discovered a large lithium deposit in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau earlier this year, it still needs to import most of the metal.

Jack Lifton is co-chairman of the Critical Minerals Institute in the US and a leading expert on the economics and markets of critical minerals like lithium. He says China has been more organised about planning its electric vehicle industry than the US or Europe.