As the automotive industry shifts towards electric vehicles the dilemma of resourcing raw materials required to make the batteries and motors is becoming more prominent. Cobalt is a vital material for EV batteries, however, the rapid acceleration of demand for the element has led to questions about availability and ethics of the necessary supply.<\/span><\/p>\n Whilst consumer electronic devices\u2019 batteries only require a few grams of cobalt, EVs require kilograms of the material, in recent industry research it has been discovered that lithium-ion battery applications accounted for 63% of cobalt demand and so EV batteries have become the number one application for the material accounting to 34%.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The cobalt industry is predicted to grow from $7.6 billion in 2020 to $17.4 billion by 2027.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Eventually the increase in demand will result in having to recycle batteries to recover their cobalt for reuse in new cars. However at current, there aren\u2019t enough retirement-age EVs on the road for this method to be a significant contribution to the supply chain. In addition to this, today’s electronic devices that have been using cobalt do not have suitable recycling systems to recover the cobalt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Cobalt has also been recovered as part of the process of mining copper and nickel, and until recently was disposed of meaning that old mine tailings are another potential source of cobalt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The European Union has plans in place to implement a \u201cbattery passport\u201d meaning that carmakers will need to verify the provenance of all materials used to make batteries in their cars. The passport will also require a portion of recycled material to be included.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There is also another potential source of cobalt, along wit many other metals, that is environmentally sensitive. Despite geological surveys suggesting that there is approximately 7 million tons of cobalt available worldwide, there is 120 million tons of the material lying on the sea floor in rocky globs called \u201cmulti-metallic sea nodules\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Click here to find out more: <\/span>https:\/\/www.designnews.com\/automotive-engineering\/how-auto-industry-will-get-enough-cobalt-ev-revolution<\/a><\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Following rapid demand for the material As the automotive industry shifts towards electric vehicles the dilemma of resourcing raw materials required to make the batteries and motors is becoming more prominent. Cobalt is a vital material for EV batteries, however, … Continue reading