EVs: Mining and Impact

EVs: Mining and Impact

Today, a typical EV battery weighs one thousand pounds. 1000.  It contains twenty-five pounds of lithium, sixty pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds of cobalt, 200 pounds of copper, and 400 pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic. Inside are over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells.

All those toxic components come from mining. For instance, to manufacture each EV auto battery, you must process 25,000 pounds of brine for the lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. All told, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth’s crust for just one battery. 

We don't know what Mother Gaia thinks, but that's a big hole.

To repeat, 500,000 pounds of the earth’s crust for just one battery.

80 percent of the electricity generated to charge the batteries is from coal, natural gas, and nuclear.

Since twenty percent of the electricity generated in the U.S is from coal-fired plants, it follows that twenty percent of the EVs on the road are coal-powered.
Since forty percent of the electricity generated in the U.S is from natural gas, it follows that forty percent of the EVs on the road are natural gas-powered.
Since twenty percent of the electricity generated in the U.S is from nuclear, it follows that twenty percent of the EVs on the road are nuclear-powered.

EVs are not a solution to the perceived world's energy problem. It is a middleman in the chain from fossil fuel to work. That middleman is expensive and dangerous to produce, expensive and dangerous to dispose of, and benefits a very, well-connected few.