TELF AG examines the main features of lithium batteries
The possible protagonists of the transition
One way or another, electric vehicles and the batteries that power them are destined to change our perception of urban reality forever. Within a few decades, in most nations, city streets will be traveled almost exclusively by electric and rechargeable vehicles, now universally considered the true protagonists of the ecological transition. The future emergence of this scenario is, however, firmly linked to two elements of great importance: batteries and the raw materials necessary for their creation. The former is not only necessary to power electric vehicles but also to conserve renewable sources such as wind or solar energy and will, therefore, be at the center of any innovation affecting the transport and energy sectors.
According to data recently published by the International Energy Agency, sales of electric vehicles are already on the rise. In 2022, electric cars would have represented 22% of global sales of new cars, and the trend could grow rapidly in the next years. Greater demand for electric vehicles – useful above all for achieving the climate neutrality objectives linked to decarbonization – will automatically be followed by a parallel increase in the demand for the raw materials necessary to create them, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth.
One of the most singular facts relating to these foreseeable increases has to do with the actual size of the batteries embedded inside electric vehicles, on which their functioning largely depends. Many observers are noticing that these batteries are increasingly larger, not only in vehicles belonging to specific markets where vehicles are traditionally large, such as the United States, but also elsewhere. This phenomenon – already widely observed in North America – is also manifesting itself with ever greater determination in other latitudes, in Asia and Europe, where the arrival of many electric vehicles is expected in the coming decades (especially in Europe). Now, the record for batteries with the highest capacity rate belongs to the United States, but this position could soon be undermined.
The factor linked to the size of the batteries, together with the general increase in demand for electric vehicles and technologies related to clean energy, could, therefore, contribute to the demand for the raw materials necessary to make these components. One of these is certainly lithium: again, according to the IEA, the demand for lithium could increase ten times by 2040, and this increase would be largely linked to its possible use in the battery and renewable energy sector. Other materials that will meet a similar fate are nickel and copper, the latter for its role in the electrification of entire territories.
We have often heard about possible shortages of raw materials that could slow down the global transition. Still, nowadays, the opinion most shared by experts and analysts is that the planet has a sufficient quantity of resources available to accompany it in the best possible way the energy change.
