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Unless the reserves turn out to be at least 20x larger than that table, all electric lithium-ion is not going to happen. Are you saying that that table is off b
by jules 15y ago
Unless the reserves turn out to be at least 20x larger than that table, all electric lithium-ion is not going to happen. Are you saying that that table is off by 2000%?
Sure, it's not a fixed reserve but a smooth price curve. That doesn't mean a lot in practice; people aren't going to pay millions to extract every last bit of lithium from the earth. The point is that lithium-ion batteries for cars are most likely not going to be the long term solution. The same applies to solar panels and fuel cells that have rare materials in them by the way.
- dwiel 15y agoI could imagine driverless cars reducing the total number of vehicles we need to own as a species by an order of magnitude, perhaps more. That might help.
- Robin_Message 15y agoJust to note that lithium is not like oil: the lithium is not consumed in making the batteries, so if it turns out to be useful it'll be worth gathering even from low quality sources. Also, sea water is 1-2ppm lithium -- expensive but plenty of it to extract.