Redaktionsnetzwerk DeutschlandMore and more electric cars on the...

Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland

More and more electric cars on the roads - but where do the raw materials actually come from?
https://www.rnd.de/e-mobility/e-auto-rohstoffe-der-elektroautos-fuer-batterien-und-ihre-ursprungsorte-G6F42U3WZVB6BKJTYCC3BJKHQI.html

Quotes: "And e-cars are booming, from 2.1 million cars sold globally in 2019 to an estimated 5.6 million in 2021, according to a November Bloomberg report that includes plug-in hybrid cars."

"The cathode of a battery for a standard mid-size car alone contains several kilograms each of manganese, lithium, cobalt and nickel. In addition, there is graphite for the anode. "Currently, the data show a looming mismatch between the world's increased climate change ambitions and the availability of key minerals essential to achieving them," says International Energy Agency (IEA) Director Fatih Birol at the launch of a report on minerals and alternative energy in general."

"According to the study, for the world to meet climate protection and sustainability targets, total energy storage capacity in the form of batteries and other storage devices will need to increase about fifty-fold by 2040."

"Germany also has some lithium: A plant is being built in Bruchsal in the Upper Rhine Graben, where lithium-containing solution is coming up in a geothermal power plant anyway. "The first lithium can probably be extracted industrially from the plant in six to 10 years," says Jochen Kolb of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. With the current conditions of the plant, material for about 20,000 batteries per year could be extracted."

"In another project, the company Vulcan Energy would like to supply the Volkswagen Group with lithium from the Upper Rhine Graben as early as 2026."

"Among other things, he (Michael Reckordt of the organization PowerShift) points to the supply chain law passed in Germany in June or to German car companies that are increasingly buying raw materials directly from producers in order to better control extraction."

"In recycling, as in battery production, Asian countries are ahead, he said. "China and South Korea started producing lithium cells for e-cars on an industrial scale much earlier and were already able to practice recycling with the production board.""

"According to Buchert, there are only a handful of companies in Europe that recycle e-car batteries, such as Umicore in Belgium, the market leader in recycling technology and precious metals, Nickelhütte in Aue (Saxony) and Accurec in Krefeld."
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