Lithium battery manufacture is the heftiest environmental damage from building an electric car. But over the life cycle of the vehicle the environmental damage from burning oil in a fossil fuel car far outweighs it.
We were thinking of getting one, well a hybrid at least, out of respect for the planet. I already feel guilty about the stuff in my mobile phone, that I wouldn’t be without. I knew little about the mining and toxicity of cobalt and but then I read this.
This is a Tesla battery.
To manufacture it you need:
12 tonnes of rock for Lithium
5 tons of Cobalt minerals
3 tons of mineral for nickel
12 tons of copper ore
Move 250 tons of soil to obtain:
12 kg of Lithium
30 pounds of nickels
22 kg of manganese
15 pounds of Cobalt
100 Kg of rams
200 kg of aluminum, steel or and plastic
The Caterpillar 994A used for earthmoving consumes 1000 liters of diesel in 12 hours.
Oh, and then you have to build the car.
Finally you get a “zero emissions” car.
I can’t argue with the damage caused by fossil fuel emissions, but . . . how much would this bother you?
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