How sustainable are electric cars ?

The current public debate on electromobility gives the impression that both cobalt and lithium are extracted exclusively in inhumane conditions. However, this must be put into perspective in both cases.

Regarding cobalt, the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources states that well over 80 % of cobalt ore comes from the industrial mines of international corporations, where one must assume that for instance child labour plays no role.

According to scientific data, the production of one kilogramme of lithium (from evaporation in salt basins) requires about 2000 litres of water. Thus, to produce a large TESLA battery (100 kWh), which requires approx. 7 kg of pure lithium, approx. 14,000 litres of water are used. Without question, this is a frighteningly high value. However, one must bear in mind that the water pumped up from underground is so salty that it could not be used as drinking water or for agriculture.

Moreover, the fact is that lithium has been extracted and used in the same way for decades. To date, the demand for lithium for chemical industrial applications and mobile devices is greater than that for EVs.

Today, industrial battery recycling is largely carried out according to the principle of the Duesenfeld process or electrohydraulic fragmentation treatment (“crushing”). Both techniques make it possible to recover individual metals (e.g. manganese, graphite, cobalt, nickel and lithium) as well as coherent valuable components (e.g. electrodes, separators, electrical foils) that can be directly reused to build batteries again. In addition to conserving resources, fewer pollutants are produced during the actual recycled production process. Thus, the CO2 footprint during the recycling for the production of batteries is reduced by around 40 % compared to a completely new production.

It is high time to understand that hydrogen isn't the fuel of the future. It's already here! The “hydrogen vs. battery” debate thus has become superfluous and is definitively not conducive to a wider deployment of clean energy. Industry stakeholders, instead of trying to elbow one of both technologies out of the market to make the other succeed, must start to think of a more holistic approach. Only by including all accessible green technology means we can achieve a fully sustainable society.

In the latter, hydrogen is one important piece of the puzzle. Although, around 40% less efficient for the usage in transportation than battery-electric driven vehicles, it is by far the most efficient energy carrier, capable of storing 210-times more energy per kilogram than commercial lithium-ion batteries.

Green hydrogen requires electrical energy produced from renewable energies to drive the electrolysis process, in which water is split into oxygen and hydrogen. Grey and blue hydrogen, however, are produced using fossil fuels (and high temperatures and pressures).

When the produced hydrogen is used in fuel cells, regardless of whether being green, blue or grey, electricity is produced to drive an electric motor, exactly like in a purely electric vehicle.

The electric vehicle, by far! Scientific facts don’t lie.