Re: Hmm....
>I wonder what will happen as lithium deposits get depleted, and we switch to the much more costly recycling of lithium batteries (if such a thing is even possible).
There was a recent article (*) about lithium reserves, basically they are substantial however, the more pressing problems are:
- Environmentally friendly extraction - ie. avoid turning large swathes of land into quarries and strip mines.
- Dealing with the increasing pile of spent batteries in the absence of viable recycling schemes.
>The raw mineral cost is already climbing
There was an article on this a while back. Basically, the mineral companies scaled up extraction in expectation of increased demand from the EV manufacturers, only for EV sales not to take off as expected. So currently there is a glut of lithium in the market. The price increase is due to business returning to normal. However, we can expect further price increases because there is a huge mismatch between lithium production and the forecasted increase in demand for EV's. This is just another reason why hybrids are such a good idea: A hybrid EV (HEV) produces less pollution than a conventional ICE, but because they require less lithium, you can get more of them on the road for a given amount of lithium than a full EV.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
