The push for the adoption of electric vehicles has been gaining momentum in recent years with more manufacturers coming on board with new products and ever increasing performance, whilst governments all over the world are tripping over themselves to ban internal combustion engines and force everyone down the electric route, but recent studies would highlight what many have been fearful the whole time.
The counter argument to EV has been to gain more research and development into bio fuels, synthetic fuels or alternatives such as Hydrogen. However there is little enthusiasm from politicians to listen, even though industry manufacturers has been raising the issue of late.
Those that have been sceptical of the EV revolution have alway wondered what is the net impact on the environment in the production of internal combustion engines vehicles versus electric vehicles, rather than merely focus on the fuel itself.
Now it is emerging that studies are drawing attention to the problem of battery production and how lithium is mined and produced. How much is needed to meet future demands and what is left in the wake of this process.
To summarise, the process of mining lithium leaves toxic chemicals in pools which can contaminate water supplies which has already happened in China where a river fish stocks were decimated and drinking animals were killed also. However not only is the process environmentally harmful, there is a question whether there is even enough lithium in the ground to be mined also.
So to meet the EV demands of the future, there won’t be enough lithium! It causes a toxic landscape when mined and processed…and we haven’t even begun to talk about the issue of what to do with batteries when they have reached the end of their life cycle. The batteries are not even able to be recycled right now…and it appears China is just producing EV vehicles that lay dormant in a field just rotting away…only to fudge production figures so they can gain more state funding?
The call has come for the production of EV cars to stop or rather not expand at such a rate at the moment but rather use motorcycles as the EV solution which uses much smaller batteries and is better for congestion too. However really it is the battle between EV and Alternative or Bio Fuels that really has to be fought.
The infrastructure is already there for liquid fuels, but it is not for EV for all people. This means there will be an even greater impact on the environment just to produce the batteries, vehicles and energy supply. It is counterintuitive to blindly continue down a path that ignores the perils of one and discounts the positives of another.
EV bikes or scooters can have a role to play for urban mobility and it makes sense to encourage more users onto two wheeled EV machines. It does not make any sense to create an even bigger global issue for the future without a full analysis of viable resources and alterantives.