Recharging the green transition

THE MINERALS FOUND IN AN ELECTRIC-CAR BATTERY often travel thousands of miles around the world before the vehicles they will be in hit the road. Lithium mined in Chile or Argentina is shipped to China—where three-quarters of the world’s electric-vehicle (EV) batteries are currently made. The sea journey emits considerable amounts of CO₂ in the process. Yet, electrifying the transportation sector—which accounts for more than a third of global CO₂ emissions—is key for reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

- BY NATALIE DONBACK

Putting more EVs on the roads and renewable energy in our grids will require more minerals such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt to power the batteries they rely on. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), lithium demand has risen threefold since 2020 and is expected to triple again over the next decade. The overall demand for critical minerals for EVs is expected to grow sixfold by 2040. The question is: Where will they come from?

Currently, the E.U. imports four-fifths of its extracted lithium and 100% of its processed lithium. While most of it is mined in Australia and South America, about three-quarters of the world’s lithium is processed in China. But there’s a growing push to build an EV-battery industry in Europe and North America by recycling lithium-ion batteries.

“[EV] batteries really represent one of the first times that we can truly have a circular economy,” says Alexis Georgeson, government-relations executive at Redwood Materials, the largest lithium-battery recycler in the U.S. In contrast to materials like paper and plastic, the metal atoms of lithium or nickel can be infinitely recycled. “If you take them out of a battery, that nickel atom is still there and you can refine it, purify it, and put it back into a battery, and it’s going to perform just as well if not better,” she says.