The fossil fuel industry has done great work and I hear it often, statements like:
- "I don't like the idea that kids in Afrika are digging for Cobalt for EVs.", said by an NRMA driver who replaced my 12V battery in my Kona electric.
- "EVs need so much water to mine the Lithium for the batteries." and the Chile Lithium mine fields are shown with poor people having less water.
Tagesschau (that's the ABC News in Germany) has a very interesting "fact finder" page for this. I do cite Fefes Blog here, as I can't do it better.
Have you heard that too? EVs are bad because so much water is used for the batteries? 12,000 liters for a battery with 60 kWh!!! Well, the fact finder has a helpful classification for that:
"Approximately 15,000 liters of water are consumed per kilogram of beef. You have to put that into perspective."
Ah. I say. But wait, what about the cobalt? That is also full bad!!1!
"Main uses of cobalt are metal alloys, magnets and in chemistry like desulfurization of diesel fuel, but this is often not pointed out," Plötz said. "It's a bit strange sometimes when some raw materials are only discussed in the context of e-cars."
Yeah, uh, then we should stop desulfurizing diesel ASAP!1!!! Because, uh, cobalt and stuff! Their conclusion:
"No vehicle is good for the environment. But if you compare them with each other, the electric vehicle is the least harmful."
By the way, did you know that the world's largest exporter of Lithium is currently Australia, where Lithium is primarily mined from solid rock, in contrast to Chile, for example, where it is extracted through the evaporation of saline brine. Water consumption is significantly lower in the former.