[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by Capricio

I'm starting to get the sense that "nobody did the math first" on the minerals supply chain and sustainment for all the OEMs combined EV production goals. Namely,copper, graphite, cobalt, and lithium. Seems like that could have been easily anticipated while our altruistic leaders were forcing regulations for unrealistic zero-carbon goals (for our own good) while allegedly trying to save consumers money with affordable EVs.


Am I missing something?

You are not missing anything. If the current state of battery tech and the materials involved were frozen where they are now there would be shortage somewhere. But there’s a lot of smart people working on continual development and improving efficiency of the mineral content. It’s sorta like in the 70s when catalytic converters were introduced. The amount of precious metals in them was unsustainable. Over time automakers shared research on ways to decrease the amount of precious metals. Over time 95% of precious metal content was engineered out of the converters to get them to the level of efficiency they are at today. Similar efforts will be needed for battery content and rare earth metals. That plus healthy remanufacturing and recycling industries, both of which are in progress right now.