Electric Cars – Achilles Heel #3
By now, most people know of two major shortcomings of all electric vehicles (EV):
1. Range anxiety –Gasoline and diesel cars regularly get 600+ km per fill up of a standard 64 litre tank. That is much, much further than any EV manufacturer’s distance claims.
More importantly, manufacturer’s advertised maximum distances assume limited passenger weight (usually just the driver), minimal heavy storage items, no rolling hills, and no need for air conditioning in the summer nor running the heater on high in the winter.
As reported in an earlier blog, an EV highway test drive by a CBC film crew -- 4 adults and camera equipment—had their range drop by almost 50% in cold winter driving with a ‘loaded vehicle’. They only got to their Detroit Auto Show by driving the last leg without the heater on (shivering with cold), at reduced speed (so they were hours late) and with the battery almost empty![i]
Studies by the Idaho National Laboratory, as reported by the U.S. government, show a loss of 25% to 29% in range during winter in just city, low speed driving.[ii]
2. Refueling Time – Like your smartphone, EVs take numerous hours to recharge: overnight at home or in the day at the office/workplace from 6 hours to 10 hours using regular 120V current.
Superchargers that supply electricity far faster are available with special equipment ; to speed things up by a factor of 2 to 4 to 8 to a maximum 150kW rapid charger.
But it takes a 2019 Tesla model S with 75KW battery 21 hours – YES, twenty-one hours - at standard house 120V current to achieve a range of 238 miles, and with the hyper fast 150kW charger, it still requires 1 (one) hour for a (theoretical) 300 miles range.[iii]
(A gasoline powered car, by comparison, can fill up for 370 miles or more (600+ km) in just five (5) minutes or so!)
The 3rd Achilles Heel
Now, a third key weakness or issue of EVs is becoming publicized. The batteries themselves and their ‘life cycle’ are problematic.
1. Battery power and Life expectancy
The batteries used today in EVs are Lithium ion, the ‘best’ technology currently available.
But like every battery – from your watch to your alarm clock to your smoke detector or emergency flashlight, over time, power weakens and batteries go dead. Using or storing any battery in a wet or cold environment (i.e., winter) or super-hot setting (summer) increase power loss and deterioration.
The very act of recharging a battery also reduces its life.
Yes, expect a 20% power reduction after 8 years with a normal 120V recharging and a loss of 30% or more if using a fast recharger! [iv]
And, according to expert Jason Mueller, lithium ion batteries are “most stable” at a 50% charge, so one needs to be careful. Letting it charge too long overheats the battery (i.e., it becomes dangerous) unless allowed to cool down for one to two hours before starting to drive. (So use a timer.)[v]
Simply put, the laws of chemistry are the same for all batteries.
2.Battery replacement costs
As these batteries account for up to 40% of the price of a vehicle, replacing them becomes prohibitive.
For example, the 2017 Chevy Bolt (base model) with a 60KW battery had a MSRP in Canada of $46,500 [vi]. Its GM battery pack replacement cost was $15,734.29 [vii]. That’s 34% of the car’s price.
Manufacturer battery warranties are usually 8 years or 100,000 miles for a reason.[viii]
And there have been enough 2012 Model S cars whose batteries have ‘failed’ --after just 7 years -- to warrant Tesla building its own battery recycling plant.[ix] (See further below,)
All batteries degenerate and die! Congratulation on buying your replacement car in under 10 years.
In comparison, internal combustion engines last up to 200,000 miles or more [x] (= 320,000 km).
I personally have had 3 cars since 1995 that did so.
I also know of two Volvo owners who have gone past 1,000,000 km, and there are two Volvo cars on record – still running – with just under or just over 3,000,000 miles – YES, three million miles [xi] (=4,828,032km)!
3. Raw materials - especially lithium and cobalt
EV batteries require numerous metals in large quantities: aluminum, manganese, nickel, rare cobalt, rare lithium (12 kg per Model S 70kWh [xii]) and even graphite (at a whopping 54 kg in each Model S 85kWh car [xiii]). Also copper.
These require additional mining or other extraction processes. In particular, cobalt and lithium have raised major concerns by environmentalists, local indigenous communities and human right advocates.
Cobalt is unique as a metal as any exposure can be deadly. It is simply toxic [xiv] and requires special protective clothing when being mined or used in manufacturing.
The State of New Jersey warns that cobalt dust exposure can lead to asthma, lung scaring, and cause heart, thyroid, liver and kidney damage. Contact with the skin is also damaging [xv].
Also, 60% of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic Congo. There, it is easily dug up near the surface or in deep tunnels underground with hand tools.
Unfortunately, workers are not supplied with any needed, protective clothing, including some 35,000 children are used for this work. Conditions are hazardous and deadly. Violence and child rape are commonplace [xvi] .
The DRC also has for decades been politically unstable with mass displacement of people, massacres and other human rights violations as noted by the UN and Human Rights Watch [xvii].
Currently, political instability and warfare by over 140 armed groups have forced 4.5 million people from their homes and, out of a population of just over 81 million, 13 million rely on international aid donations of some US 1.7 billion! [xviii]
As for lithium, the key ingredient in Lithium ion batteries, this rare metal is currently in such high demand for smartphones, laptops, tablets, AA, AAA and 9 V batteries that the addition of electric cars – if manufactured in the millions -- is highly problematic.
Two recent articles have highlighted the problems: the UK’s Wired on Energy, “The spiralling environmental cost of our lithium battery addiction” (online, Aug 5, 2018) and Canada’s Maclean’s magazine, “The Lithium Paradox” (January 2020, pages 80-81). [xix]
1. EVs need enormous amounts of lithium.
Depending on vehicle size, most EV require between 5kg to 10 kg of pure lithium in its batteries. (Tesla Model S 70kWh requires 12 kg as noted above, and its 100kWh vehicles must use even more.) So to replace the planet’s 1.2 billion gas/diesel powered vehicles (cars and SUVs and trucks) would require from 6 billion kilograms (6,000,000,000 kg) to 12,00,000,000 kg of purified lithium to be extracted from the earth. I.e., an increase of current mining production of well over 8,000% ! [xx]
2. Lithium is rare.
Viable large quantities are found almost exclusively in China, Australia, and the ‘lithium triangle’ of Bolivia, Argentina and Chile which account for over 50% of world reserves. (Business Insider gives the South American reserves as 75% of world supply. [xxi])
3. Local communities and environmentalists now oppose lithium extraction/mining.
Yes, local communities and environmental activists in these South American countries (and even China) are resisting further lithium mining and pressuring governments to stop.
Bolivia’s president just canceled a US$1.3 billion deal as local communities and environmental groups protested even starting any mining in the country’s Salar de Uyuni salt flats.
And similarly Argentinian local communities and environmental organizations are also rising up to stop lithium mining expansion. Using hunger strikes and blockades.
Why the opposition?
- Because these salt flats, whether in South America or China’s Tibetan border, are arid zones with limited water, but lithium extraction uses UK 500,000 gallons of water for every tonne of lithium (= US 600,000 gallons), often consuming up to 65% of available water in an area.[xxii]
Similar to oil fracking, rigs drill deep into salt flats and insert pressurized chemicals mixed with fresh water to release and force up lithium brine solutions. These are then transferred to huge ponds for evaporation by the sun over 12 to 18 months or longer. [xxiii]
- Because the numerous and huge evaporation ponds are ‘toxic cesspools’ open to the air and affecting air quality; and can also leak into nearby streams and into the ground to affect water tables and drinking wells.
In downstream Tibet, there have been reports of streams and rivers filled with dead floating fish, cows and yaks. Even in the USA with its small, traditional rock mining approach (same as that of Australia) “Research in Nevada found impacts on fish as far as 150 miles downstream from a lithium processing operation.” [xxiv]
And in South America, local communities and environmentalists complain about similar pollution of streams used for human and animal drinking water, contaminated irrigation channels and ”leaving the landscape marred by mountains of discarded salt”.[xxv]
So, the trade-off of land and environmental destruction in order to advance a ‘green’ vehicle movement – or DRC human rights violations - is no longer acceptable for many communities, their elected governments and environmental protection activists hoping to ‘save the planet’.
4. Recycling is in its infancy.
The problems of recycling discarded lithium ion car batteries is also discussed in the 2018 Wired article. Lithium Ion batteries have exploded in recycling plants and it is very tricky to disassemble and separate materials.
Wired, in fact, has 4 paragraphs detailing ongoing research in how to do so safely as we are still at the bottom of the ‘learning curve’.
This is important to note as many may have come across an internet article by EV advocate Kristen Hall-Geisler which glows about how Tesla “recycles the cooling fluid, wires and electronics in its batteries. The rest is smashed to smithereens, melted down, separated into component metals and recycled.” [xxvi]
However, her article, “How Green are Automotive Lithium-Ion Batteries?", republished in 2019 by HowStuffWorks.com, was originally produced and posted on December 6, 2011 -- and is/was simply wishful thinking.
I do not know if she was referring to Elon Musk’s original, super luxury and limited edition (under 2,500) Roadster (2008-2012) based on the Lotus Elite chassis,[xxvii] but Tesla’s first mass produced vehicle, the Model S, only rolled off the assembly line in 2012; and any recycling of batteries of its fleet since then and up to 2019 has been done by third party recyclers.
As quoted in the advance publicity blurb on Green Car Reports, April 16, 2019, “The new facility should also save significant expenses and pollution from shipping batteries overseas to be recycled, where many of the third-party recyclers are located.” [xxviii]
Final word
The Maclean’s article closes with a solution recommended by Argentinian environmentalist, Pia Marchegiani: Forget about Lithium ion batteries for personal vehicles and instead promote battery powered public transit.
The Northern Hemisphere’s materialistic world and extravagance must stop.
(I.e., USA, Canada, Europe, and even Russia and China.)
**** Welcome to the push back from local, indigenous communities and environmentalists!
[ii] https://www.energy.gov/eere/electricvehicles/maximizing-electric-cars-range-extreme-temperatures The article includes tips to extend range:
such as use A/C or heater sparingly,
brake slowly, and drive within city speed limits.
[iii] https://pod-point.com/guides/driver/how-long-to-charge-an-electric-car This 2019 updated site is filled with useful
comparisons and tips for potential EV owners.
[iv] https://www.clippercreek.com/extend-life-ev-battery/ Also numerous tis to protect battery life
and range.
[v] Ibid.
[ix] https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1122631_tesla-launches-battery-recycling-at-nevada-gigafactory
[xii] https://www.quora.com/How-much-lithium-in-kg-is-used-in-an-electric-car The solution, lithium carbonate, weighs 63 kg
per car.
[xviii] Ibid.
[xx] The article quotes 8,840% which
includes batteries to store wind and solar power energy.
[xxiii] Ibid.
[xxiv] Ibid.
[xxv] Ibid.
[xxviii] https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1122631_tesla-launches-battery-recycling-at-nevada-gigafactory