Electric mobility requires strategies to secure sustainable supply of commodities – think tank

Policymakers and companies must urgently pay attention to the commodities required by a large-scale roll-out of electric mobility to avoid bottlenecks and secure a sustainable supply, according to mobility think tank Agora Verkehrswende*. “Securing the raw materials is not a show-stopper for electric mobility, but it must not be underestimated,” said the think tank’s head Christian Hochfeld. Raw materials needed for battery production include lithium, cobalt, and graphite, and electric mobility might push up global demand up to 15-fold, according to a new study by the Institute of Applied Ecology (Öko-Institut) commissioned by the think tank. The paper recommends battery research to lower demand, binding environmental and social standards, as well as a global recycling system. Hochfeld said these were necessary to ensure electric mobility’s credibility as a technology to protect the environmental and climate.

Find the press release in German here.

*Like the Clean Energy Wire, Agora Verkehrswende is funded by the Stiftung Mercator and the European Climate Foundation