June 30, 2018

Domino effect of cobalt supplies and impact on electric vehicles

Today, stories pontificating the environmental benefits of electric vehicles, or EVs, deluge the automotive universe. While EVs do have the potential to change the global transportation landscape, a supply chain disaster seems to be brewing, which could jeopardize the availability of cobalt — probably the most important raw material in lithium-ion batteries powering EVs. Roughly 60% of the world’s cobalt is produced as a by-product of copper and nickel ores located in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Problem is the vast majority of Congolese cobalt reserves is controlled by Chinese miners, which in turn, supply to Chinese battery manufacturers and EV makers. Such cobalt ‘lock-in’ behavior could soon turn into a supply chain nightmare for Tesla and its western brethren.

Read more at https://medium.com/@tausif000/electric-vehicles-celestial-future-d77599793962

No comments:

Post a Comment

Share this...