The world needs 2 billion electric vehicles to get to net zero. But is there enough lithium to make all the batteries? Global lithium supplies are under strain as demand for electric vehicles rises. Lithium is one of the key components in electric vehicle (EV) batteries, but global supplies are under strain because of rising EV demand.
The answer to the question is lithium, and the bad news for the world is that it potentially has nowhere near enough of it to power all the electric vehicle (EV) batteries it wants – and needs. Lithium is a non-ferrous metal known as “white gold”, and is one of the key components in EV batteries, alongside nickel and cobalt.
Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are considered the prime candidate for both EVs and energy storage technologies , but the limitations in term of cost, performance and the constrained lithium supply have also attracted wide attention , .
A lithium-ion battery pack for a single electric car contains about 8 kilograms (kg) of lithium, according to figures from US Department of Energy science and engineering research centre Argonne National Laboratory.
After some number crunching, courtesy of Ritchie, you get 2.8 billion EVs from that 22 million tonnes of lithium. With 1.4 billion cars on the road now, that might seem like a tight margin, but one likely improved with growing innovations in mining and battery technology—not to mention this is only Earth’s reserves of lithium.
Li-ion batteries have a typical deep cycle life of about 3000 times, which translates into an LCC of more than $0.20 kWh −1, much higher than the renewable electricity cost (Fig. 4 a). The DOE target for energy storage is less than $0.05 kWh −1, 3–5 times lower than today’s state-of-the-art technology.
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An increased supply of lithium will be needed to meet future expected demand growth for lithium-ion batteries for transportation and energy storage. Lithium demand has tripled since 2017 [1] and is set to grow tenfold by 2050 under the International Energy Agency''s (IEA) Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario. [2]
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