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Can someone point me to studies that model the effect of replacing all fuel-based vehicles with electric counterparts on availability of things like rare earth
by petard 9y ago
Can someone point me to studies that model the effect of replacing all fuel-based vehicles with electric counterparts on availability of things like rare earth metals? I'm all for electric cars and such but have been wondering about the consequences on earth resources since current battery tech is not exactly environmentally-friendly either afaik.
- coob 9y agoBatteries don't need rare earth metals and neither do newer electric motors.
- hcurtiss 9y agoTrue, but they do require metals like lithium and cobalt. Here's an interesting article on the lithium rush in Nevada. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-03-29/the-great-nevada-lithium-rush-to-fuel-the-new-economy https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-03-29/the-great...
- cjrp 9y agoDo any currently-non-rare metals suddenly become rare when you increase worldwide electric vehicle production 100x though?
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoNo. Rare earths actually aren't "rare", they just require a lot of processing because they are pretty diluted where they are found. So using those other metals more doesn't make them magically rare, since they are mined differently.
- cjrp 9y agoTIL, thanks