Electric Vehicle
Status quo: perhaps the largest growth industry of "green" transition. For this reason it is especially susceptible to greenwashing. Consider the connection between Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch, who sat together at the 2023 Superbowl, broadcast on FOX (owned by Murdoch) and featuring a barrage of EV commercials.[1] James Murdoch, son of Rupert, has been on the Board of Directors at Tesla, Inc. since 2017. [2]
Challenges
- Entanglement with Car Culture
Car Culture
- Dependence on Lithium mining & Cobalt
Extractive Mining
To achieve mass adoption of electric vehicles at the levels projected will require that EV batteries become cheaper and are able to achieve longer ranges between charges. Prices of lithium-ion battery packs have steadily decreased as EV manufacturers seek to achieve cost parity with internal combustion vehicles. Measured in price per kilowatt-hour, the production cost of lithium-ion battery packs has fallen 89 percent from $1,200/kWh in 2010 to $132/kWh in 2021. Production costs are projected to reach the all-important mark of $100/kWh by 2024, at which point EVs will achieve cost parity with gas-powered cars.9 Equally important to cost in accelerating EV adoption is the range the car can travel between charges. To increase range, batteries require higher energy densities, and only lithium-ion chemistries using cobalt cathodes are currently able to deliver maximum energy density while maintaining thermal stability. To understand why requires a brief review of how batteries work.
Batteries provide portable sources of electrical energy by rebalancing a chemical imbalance between a cathode (positive electrode) and an anode (negative electrode). The cathode and anode are separated by a chemical barrier called an electrolyte. When the cathode and anode are connected to a device, this creates a circuit, which results in a chemical reaction that generates positive ions and negative electrons at the anode. An opposite reaction takes place at the cathode. Nature always seeks balance, so the positive ions and negative electrons in the anode travel to the cathode, but they take different paths to reach their destinations. The ions flow directly through the electrolyte to the cathode, whereas the electrons flow through the external circuit to the cathode. The electrons are unable to travel through the electrolyte because its chemical nature acts as a barrier and forces them to pass through the outer circuit / device. This flow of electrons creates the energy that powers the device. As a battery generates electrical power, the chemicals inside it are gradually “used up.” A rechargeable battery, on the other hand, is one that allows a change in the direction of flow of electrons and ions using another power source that pushes everything back to the starting point. Different materials have different abilities to release, attract, and store electrons and ions, and this is where lithium and cobalt enter the picture.
Lithium-based chemistries became the dominant form for rechargeable batteries because lithium is the lightest metal in the world, which has obvious benefits for consumer technology and electric vehicle applications. Cobalt is used in the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries because it possesses a unique electron configuration that allows the battery to remain stable at higher energy densities throughout repeated charge-discharge cycles. Higher energy density means the battery can hold more charge, which is critical to maximize the driving range of an electric vehicle between charges.
The three primary types of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries used today are lithium cobalt oxide (LCO), lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (L-NMC), and lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (L-NCA). Lithium accounts for only 7 percent of the materials used in each type of battery, whereas cobalt can be as high as 60 percent. Each battery chemistry has its strengths and weaknesses.
LCO batteries provide high energy density, which allows them to store more power per weight of battery. This quality makes them ideal for use in consumer electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. The tradeoff is that LCO batteries have shorter life spans and deliver a lower amount of power, qualities that make them unsuitable for use in electric vehicles.
L-NMC batteries are used in most electric vehicles, except for Tesla, which uses L-NCA batteries. Since 2015, the trend with these batteries has been to reduce cobalt reliance by moving toward higher ratios of nickel. Nickel has lower thermal stability than cobalt, so the higher the ratio of nickel used, the lower the battery’s stability and safety.
The limited supply and high cost of cobalt has not gone unnoticed by the EV industry. Battery researchers are working on alternative designs that can minimize or eliminate reliance on cobalt. At present, most cobalt-free alternatives have significant disadvantages relating to energy density, thermal stability, manufacturing costs, and longevity. Many of them are also a decade or more away from commercial-scale production.
For the foreseeable future, there will be no avoiding cobalt from the Congo, which means there will be no avoiding the devastation that cobalt mining causes the people and environment of the mining provinces of the DRC. Even after battery designers find a way to eliminate cobalt from rechargeable batteries without sacrificing performance or safety, the misery of the Congolese people will not end. There will surely be another prize slumbering in the dirt that will be made valuable by the global economy. Such has been the curse of the Congo for generations. Unspeakable riches have brought the people of the Congo little other than unspeakable pain.
More than a century ago, E. D. Morel described the Congo Free State as “a gigantic slave-farm reeking with cruelty.” Cobalt mining is the slave farm perfected—the cost of labor has been nullified through the degradation of Africans at the bottom of an economic chain that purports to exonerate all participants of accountability through a shrewd scheme of obfuscation adorned with hypocritical proclamations about the preservation of human rights. It is a system of absolute exploitation for absolute profit. Cobalt mining is the latest in a long history of “enormous and atrocious” lies that have tormented the people of the Congo.
The truth, as ever, waits to be revealed.[3]
Opportunities
Sources
- ↑ https://time.com/6255332/super-bowl-electric-vehicle-ads-2023/
- ↑ https://ir.tesla.com/corporate/james-murdoch
- ↑ Kara, S. (2023). Cobalt red: how the blood of the Congo powers our lives (First edition.). St. Martin's Press.