An electric vehicle (EV) battery uses up just 30kg of raw materials with recycling compared to the 17,000 litres of petrol burned by the average car. That’s according to a new study that shows Europe’s current crude oil dependency far outweighs its need for battery raw materials. The gap is set to increase further as technological advancements drive down the amount of lithium required to make an EV battery by half over the next decade. The amount of cobalt required will drop by more than three-quarters and nickel by around a fifth.
Many seem to forget you cannot just compare an EV battery vs a fossil fuel car battery, it is about the sum of the components. Fossil fuel emissions are also emitted in the very worst environment, inside built-up cities where people live. And yes even if you then include the generating side (where grids are getting greener) you then need to factor in the extraction of oil, transporting, spillages, refining, more transporting, etc as well to compare apples with apples.
See Electric Car Batteries Need Far Less Raw Materials Than Fossil-Fuel Cars — New Study
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Originally published on Transport & Environment. By Sam Hargreaves An electric vehicle (EV) battery uses up just 30kg of raw materials with recycling compared to the 17,000 litres of petrol burned by the average car. That’s according to a new study that shows Europe’s current crude oil dependency far outweighs its need for battery raw materials. […]